NGERSOLLandMoSE 


OlJRTISS. 


V    ^^ 


m. 


PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


SAe//. 


Division . . .  hr/. .  .v«< . .  I.  .4Tr.  .A-  "-h^ 

Section  ....>.vr^ 

Number. ..}..Xi-..\Xi..\.  .K.w  | 


INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 


A    REPLY 


BY 


EEY.  SAMUEL  lYES^CURTISS,  D.  D., 

DOCTOR   OF  PHILOSOPHY,  LEIPZIG ;     LICENTIATE  OF   THEOLOGY,  BERLIN  ;     PRO- 
FESSOR OF  OLD  TESTAMENT  LITERATURE  AND  INTERPRETATION 
IN  CHICAGO  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY;  AUTHOR  OF 
"THE   LEVITICAL   PRIESTS,"  ETC. 


WITH  NOTES  AND  APPENDICES. 


CHICAGO: 
JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  COMPANT. 

1880.  , 


COPYRIGHT : 

Jansen,    McClurg  &  Co., 
A.  D.  1879. 


STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED 

BY 

THE  CHICAGO  LEGAL  NEWS  COMPANY. 


TO 

THE  YOUNG  MEN  OF  THE  NORTHWEST, 

THIS    LITTLE    WORK,    BY    ONE    OF   THEIR   OWN  NUMBER, 

IS    AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED. 


PEEFACE. 


It  may  seem  to  many  a  useless  task  to  publish  a  reply 
to  that  which  is  considered  by  some  as  its  own  refutation. 
Such  however,  ignore  the  insidious  and  wide-spread 
influence  of  the  author  of  The  Mistakes  of  Moses.  If  it 
should  appear  to  the  physician  that  a  specific  compound 
is  sure  death  to  some  who  may  receive  it,  he  ought  not  to 
decline  to  seek  an  antidote  because  he  despises  the  man- 
ufacturer of  the  drug  as  a  charlatan,  but  is  bound  to  em- 
ploy his  best  skill  in  preparing  a  remedy. 

It  may  be  deemed  wiser,  instead  of  indicating  the 
poison  by  its  vulgar  name,  learnedly  to  warn  people 
against  using  its  constituent  parts,  lest  we  should  bring 
the  very  thing  into  notice  which  we  wish  to  suppress. 
In  other  words  many  will  say,  to  combat  Ingersoll  is  to 
advertise  him,  and  make  that  prominent  which  might 
otherwise  be  forgotten.  If  any  hold  this  view  of  the 
case,  I  beg  leave  to  difi'er  with  them.  Hence  I  have  pre- 
pared these  pages  to  meet  the  wants  of  those  who  have 
known  that   IngersolPs  address  was  full  of   sophistries 

(5) 


PREFACE, 


and  errors,  but  have  not  had  the  means  at  hand  for  refut- 
ing them.  I  therefore  offer  both  to  the  clergy  and  the 
laity  this  little  work,  which  is  the  fruit  of  extended  read- 
ing and  research.  There  is  but  one  class  of  readers  for 
whom  I  have  not  written.  I  refer  to  those  who,  without 
weighing  evidence,  will  affirm  as  soon  as  they  see  the 
covers  of  this  book,  or  perhaps  on  the  basis  of  a  garbled 
extract,  that  Ingersoll  cannot  be  answered,  hence,  that 
he  has  not  been  answered  in  this  case.  My  desire  howev- 
er, is  not  for  personal  reputation.  Should  it  appear  that 
better  arguments  can  be  offered  than  are  here  afforded,  I 
should  rejoice  at  the  discovery  of  the  fact.  Whatever  may 
be  the  success  of  this  and  similar  efforts,  let  it  be  remem- 
bered, that  the  most  potent  argument  against  infidelity, 
is  a  life  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  which  would 
rather  suffer  reproach,  poverty,  and  even  death  itself,  than 
bring  disgrace  upon  Him  who  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for 
many. 

S.  I.  C. 
Chicago,  September,  1879. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Introduction, 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Creative  Week, 16 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  First  Family  in  Eden, 26 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Deluge  and  the  Confusion  of  Tongues,         .        •        .        35 

CHAPTER  V. 
Israel's  Exodus  and  Wanderings, 42 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Israel's  Customs  and  Laws,  58 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Various  Misstatements  by  Ingersoll, 73 

(7) 


8  CONTENTS. 

APPENDIX  A. 
The  Appointment  of  Luminaries,  91 

APPENDIX  B. 
"The  Sons  of  God," 93 

APPENDIX  C. 
Traditions  Concerning  the  Flood, 95 

APPENDIX  D. 
The  Rapid  Increase  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,        ,       .         100 

APPENDIX  E. 

The  Former  Condition  of  the  Wilderness  of  Sinai,  .     101 

APPENDIX  F. 

"The  Land  Flowing  with  Milk  and  Honey,"  .       .  107 

APPENDIX  G. 
Ramses  II  and  Moses •        .111 

APPENDIX  H. 
Roman  Slavery, •       •  112 

APPENDIX  I. 
Does  the  Bible  Favor  Polygamy? 113 

Index, ••••  115 


INGERSOLL    AND    MOSES. 


CHAPTEK     I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Summary:  A  Lesson  for  us  from  the  first  Chapter  of  Romans  — 
Ingersoll's  Method  —  The  Scriptures  should  not  be  Rejected 
without  Sufficient  Cause — Monotonous  "Hoots" — Creeds  and 
some  "  Solemnly  Stupid  "  Graduates  of  Andover — Was  Moses 
the  Author  of  the  Pentateuch? — Ingersoll's  Caricature  of  the 
Bible. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  that  terrible  picture  which  he 
draws  of  the  sensuality  and  abominable  vices  of  the 
heathen  world — a  picture  which  every  classical  scholar 
and  missionary  acknowledges  to  be  strictly  true^ — 

1  Cf.  Plato's  Symposium,  191,  etc. 

For  some  remarks  on  the  vice  of  paiderastia,  in  Greece,  see  Lecky's  His- 
tory of  European  Morals,  New  York,  18G0,  Vol.  II,  p.  311.  Allusion  is  also  made 
to  that  which  obtained  among  the  Lesbian  women,  and  which  is  said  to  be 
found. in  some  parts  of  Africa  in  Reade's  Savage  Africa,  New  York,  1864,  p. 
424.  Instances  of  a  want  of  natural  affection  among  heathen  nations,  both 
ancient  and  modern,  are  abundant ;  (a)  the  poor  and  sick  were  left  to  per- 
ish. BiUiotheca  Sacra,  Andover,  1863,  Vol.  XX,  p.  232 ;  Quarterly  Review,  Lon- 
don, 1809,  Vol.  I,  p.  219.  (6.)  The  aged  were  often  left  alone  to  die;  Catlin, 
The  North  American  Indians,  Philadelphia,  1857,  Vol.  I.  p.  335-7.  Jenkins  in 
the  Voyage  of  the  U.  S.  Exploring  Squadron,  Aubnm,  1852,  p.  349,  says  : 
"  Among  the  Fejees,  old  people  are   frequently  put   to   death   at   their 

(9) 


10  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

assigns  the  reason  for  that  melancholy  degradation. 
The  heathen,  he  says,  who  once  had  the  truth  respect- 
ing God,  exchanged  it  for  a  lie,  and  tlierefore  wor- 
shipped the  creature  instead  of  the  Creator. 

Who  may  not  see  in  IngersolPs  caricature  of  God, 
and  in  his  apotheosis  of  wife  and  children,  the  prelim- 
inaries of  a  similar  process,  which,  if  it  were  to  sweep 
Christianity,  as  he  desires,  from  the  earth,  would  leave 
us  with  a  civilization  rotten  to  the  core? 

It  is  not  my  intent,  however,  to  tarry  upon  this 
point,  but  to  proceed  at  once  to  consider  his  lecture 
delivered  in  Chicago  some  weeks  ago,  entitled  The 
Mistakes  of  Moses} 

own  desire,  to  escape  decrepitude,  and  are  sometimes  forcibly  strangled  or 
buried  alive,  by  their  children.  Persons  in  an  infirm  condition,  or  sick  of 
a  lingering  disease,  are  often  served  in  the  same  manner," 

(c.)  Infanticide  has  been  most  prevalent.  It  was  "almost  universally 
admitted  among  the  Greeks,"  and  was  "  a  crying  vice  of  the  [Roman]  em- 
pire." Lecky,  i&id.,  pp.  27-29;  it  has  been  observed  among  the  North 
American  Indians,  Missionary  Herald,  Boston,  1823,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  9 ;  and  has 
abounded  in  India,  Q^arterly  Review,  London,  1809,  Vol.  1,  p.  219,  JahrbUcher 
der  Literatur,  Wien,  1818,  Vol.  II,  p.  326 ;  in  China,  Hue,  A  Journey  Through 
the  Chinese  Empire,  New  York,  Vol,  II,  p.  332 ;  Doolittle,  Social  Life  of  the 
Chinese,  New  York,  1865,  Vol.  II,  p.  203-9 ;  and  in  the  South  Sea  Islands. 

Eev  John  Williams,  in  his  Narrative  of  Missionary  Enterprms,  London,  1838, 
p,  479,  says  of  the  women  of  the  Society  Islands :  "  I  never  conversed  with 
a  female  that  had  borne  children  prior  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
who  had  not  destroyed  some  of  them,  and  frequently  as  many  as  from  five 
to  ten."  The  universal  testimony  is  that  Christianity  has  proved  a  check  to 
these  practices.  A  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review,  London,  1809,  Vol,  I,  p.  216, 
says  of  it:  "All  human  affections  and  instincts  are  on  its  side  in  Hindo- 
stan;  it  forbids  the  mother  to  expose  or  sacrifice  her  child  the  widow  to  be 
burnt  with  her  husband's  corpse,  the  son  to  set  Are  to  his  living  mother's 
funeral  pile." 

I'lhe  edition  used  is  that  of  Rhodes  &  McClure,  Chicago,  1879. 


/ 


IXTEODUCTIOX.  H 


I  have  no  doubt  that  the  author  possesses  the  rarest 
tact  in  interesting  an  audience,  and  I  can  understand 
how  he  succeeds  in  captivating  some  of  our  young 
men.  And  yet,  after  scanning  his  lecture,  he  seems 
to  me  like  one  of  those  old  sophists  who  professed 
their  ability  to  maintain  any  position.  Indeed,  ac- 
cording to  my  thinking,  he  appears  in  just  the  same 
role  in  which  he  accuses  the  clergy  of  appearing, 
namely,  that  of  an  advocate.  He  has  searched  the  Bi- 
ble through  that  he  might  find  blemishes  on  which 
to  display  his  ridicule.  This  is  indeed  a  possible  way 
of  studying  art  and  literature.  He  reminds  me  of  a 
character  in  the  Meister  Sanger,  who  found  only  dis- 
cords and  mistakes  in  his  rival's  music,  which  en- 
tranced every  other  ear.  He  is  deaf  to  those  majestic 
strains  of  Christianity  which  have  been  growing  in 
sweetness  and  harmony  throughout  the  centuries. 
Rather  than  enjoy  the  fragrance  of  the  flowers  of 
Scripture,  he  passes  them  to  light,  if  possible,  upon 
some  dunghill.  He  is  as  fair  in  his  discussion  of  the 
Bible  as  one  who  should  make  some  of  Ophelia's  songs 
in  her  madness  ^  a  test  of  Shakspeare's  genius,  or  of 
the  value  of  his  immortal  creations. 

I  would  not,  however,  be  understood  as  implying 
that  there  are  blemishes  in  the  Bible.     I  am  merely 

^Hamlet,  Act  IV,  Scene  5. 


12  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

endeavoring  to  show  how  irrational  this  method  is. 
Before  I  could  be  content  to  be  a  deist,  and  think  that 
perhaps  there  was  "  in  immensity  some  being  beneath 
whose  wing  the  universe  exists,  whose  every  thought 
is  a  glittering  star,"  but  who  had  left  this  poor  world 
to  take  its  course,  and  all  his  creatures  to  suffer  with- 
out one  word  of  sympatliy,  I  should  want  to  weigh 
the  matter  well  before  rejecting  that  Book  which  is 
associated  with  a  mother's  prayers  and  tears,  and  the 
holiest  influences  of  childhood.  Before  embarking  on 
the  shoreless,  starless  sea  of  atheism,  I  should  w^ant 
something  more  than  the  Mistakes  of  Moses,  served 
Tip  by  a  politician  w^ho  wants  "  the  peoj)le  splendid 
enough  "  to  put  a  man  at  the  head  of  the  State  who 
does  not  believe  in  any  moral  governor  of  the  uni- 
verse. 

But  we  must  not  delay  here.  Let  us  take  up  the 
various  assertions  with  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  is  trying 
to  subjugate  the  West  to  atheism. 

He  professes  to  be  a  kind  friend  of  the  ministers, 
and  wishes  to  free  them  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
tyranny  of  creeds,  so  that  they  need  no  longer,  owl-like, 
hoot  the  same  "  hoots "  which  their  fathers  have 
hooted  before  them.  You  see  how  it  is.  According 
to  this  new  teacher  of  ethics,  there  is  no  definite  truth. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 


Is  it  not  sad  that  our  children  should  be  carrying  on 
this  same  process,  and  be  hooting  the  hoots  that  the 
inventor  of  the  multiplication  table  hooted,  when  he 
used  to  say  five  times  one  are  five? 

Ought  not  Ingersoll,  since  he  is  such  a  friend  of 
education,  to  seek  a  reform  in  this  particular,  so  that 
the  children  may  be  independent  enough  to  say  five 
times  one  are  six? 

Is  it  not,  however,  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there 
should  be  exact  truth  about  the  being  and  attributes 
of  God,  which  can  never  change,  and  that  he  should 
reveal  it  to  his  creatures? 

The  narrowness  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
because  it  has  a  creed,  is  held  up  for  derision,  and  its 
ministers  are  cited  as  those  who  "shrink  and  shrivel, 
and  become  solemnly  stupid,  day  after  day."  Dr. 
Kichard  Salter  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn,  is  a  pretty  good 
example  of  this  shriveling  process,  and  there  are 
scores  of  others;* 

And  now  we  come  to  Robert  Ingersoll's  charge,  that 
"Moses  never  wrote  one  word  of  the  Pentateuch." 
When  I  consider  Ingersoll's  untiring  devotion  to  crit- 

1  The  Triennial  Catalogue  of  the  Theological  S^eminary,  Andover,  1870,  shows  a 
splendid  galaxy  of  names,  such  as  those  of  Leonard  Bacon,  S.  C.  Bartlett, 
W.  I.  Budington,  Joseph  Cook,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  Adonir.im  Judson, 
Edwards  A,  Park,  H.  B.  Smith,  Gardiner  Fpring,  Wm.  Hayes  Ward— men 
who  have  been  and  are  anything  but  "solemnly  stupid." 


14  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

ical  investigation,  and  some  of  his  remarkable  discov- 
eries, which  I  shall  mention  hereafter,  I  might  be 
tempted  to  believe  the  assertion.  But  soberly, 
althouorh  there  are  not  a  few  critics  who  maintain  the 
same  view,  I  am  old  fashioned  enongh  to  take  the 
assertion,  "  and  Moses  wrote  this  law"  (Deut.  xxxi : 
9,  24),  as  proof  that  he  was  at  least  the  author  of 
of  Deuteronomy.  This  opinion  is  held  by  Prof. 
Delitzsch,*  and  some  other  eminent  scholars,^  and  as 
regards  the  rest  of  the  Pentateuch,  something  more 
than  mere  assertion  is  necessary  to  disprove  the 
Mosaic  authorship.  Ingersoll,  in  denying  that  author- 
ship is  simply  ''  hooting  the  hoots"  of  the  critics.  It 
would  have  been  well  for  his  reputation  if  he  had 
continued  the  process  throughout  his  address. 

His  entire  effort,  however,  is  devoted  to  breaking 
down  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  He  holds  up 
certain  facts,  pours  his  sarcasm  upon  them,  and  then 
derisively  asks:  "  Can  the  book  which  contains  such 
statements  be  true?     Can  it  be  inspired?" 

I  may  as  well  remark  here,  that  some  of  the  facts  of 
the  Bible  are  just  about  as  correctly  represented  by 

1.  See  his  Commentar  uher  die  Genesis,  Leipzig,  1872,  p.  20  sq. 

2.  Schroder,  Das  Deuteronomi'im,  Bielefeld,  1866,  p.  4  sq.  I  think  that 
NJigelsbach,  author  of  the  commentary  on  Isaiah,  C.  P.  Caspari,  who  wrote 
uher  Miche  den  Morasthiten,  Christiania,  1852,  and  that  Prof.  Kohler  (?)  of 
Erlangen,  hold  the  same  view. 


INTliODUCTIOX.  15 


this  scoffer  as  the  cherubs  in  tlie  Sistine  Madonna,  with 
their  faces  turned  upward  in  wrapt  adoration,  are 
portrayed  in  some  of  those  horrible  caricatures  which 
we  see  in  the  shop  windows.  So  much  by  way  of  cau- 
tion with  reference  to  some  of  the  points  which  must 
pass  in  review. 


CHAPTER    11. 

THE    CREATIVE   WEEK. 

Summary:  Creation  out  of  Nothing — The  Bible  lays  no  claim  to 
Scientific  Accuracy — Its  Purpose — It  uses  Popular  Lang-uag-e — 
Object  of  the  Author  of  Genesis  I — Relation  of  Light  and 
Darkness — The  Firmament — The  Sun's  " Amorous  Kiss'' — 
Was  there  no  Light  on  the  Third  Day?  The  Luminaries — 
The  Sun  Standing  Still,  and  the  Shadow  on  the  Dial — The  His- 
tory of  Astronomy  in  "  Five  Words  " — The  Age  of  the  World 
•with  reference  to  the  passage  of  Light — Objections  to  the  Text 
of  the  Old  Testament — Specimen  of  the  Light  of  the  iSTineteenth 
Century. 

Ingersoll  takes  exception  to  liis  own  version  of  the 
Englisli  Scriptures,  when  he  says  that  the  [one]  ''  who 
wrote  [the  Bible]  begins  by  telling  us  that  God  made 
the  universe  out  of  nothing."  This,  however,  is  not 
in  the  English  version.  There  we  simply  read:  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 
It  is  true  that  many  critics  hold  that  tara^  in  connec- 
tion with  hereshith^  signifies  creation  out  of  nothing, 
and  that  theologians  especially,  in  view  of  Ileb.  xi.  3, 

(16) 


THE  CREATIVE  WEEK.  17 

teacli  tliis  doctrine.  But  tlicn  this  mistake,  if  it  be  a 
mistake,  is  neither  due  to  Moses  in  the  original  nor  in 
the  translation.  Indeed,  the  only  evidence  that  Inger- 
soll  can  afford  why  it  is  a  mistake,  is  because  it  seems 
unreasonable  to  him.  lie  doubtless  believes  according^ 
to  the  "  light  of  the  brain  and  heart  of  the  nineteentli 
century,"  which  he  mentions  as  our  standard  of  judg- 
ment— that  you  and  I  have  come  into  being  through 
the  force  of  natural  laws;  that  our  eyes  were  pro- 
duced because  millions  of  our  progenitors  tried  to 
see;  our  ears,  because  they  itched  to  liear.^  Our 
friend,  who  probably  holds  all  this  as  sweetly  reason- 
able, thinks  it  irrational  that  an  omnipotent  Creator 
should  have  created  the  material  of  the  universe. 

He  next  takes  exception  to  the  expression  that  God 
divided  the  light  from  the  darkness,  and  concludes 
that  the  author  must  have  considered  them  "entities." 
Before  answering  this  objection,  let  us  establish  the 
proposition  once  for  all,  that  the  Bible  does  not  use 
scientific  language,  nor  does  it  profess  to  teach  science. 
AYe  read,  2  Tim.  iii,  16-17:  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by 
inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 

J  Haeekel,  In  his  Anthropogenie,  Leipzig,  1877,  p.  565,  says  :  "  Originally  all 
the  organs  of  sense  were  nothing  more  than  parts  of  the  external  skiu,  in. 
which  the  nerves  of  sensation  have  extended  themselves." 


18  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

iiess,  that  tlie  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works."  You  will  perceive 
that  not  one  word  is  said  here  about  a  purely  intellec- 
tual or  scientific  teaching;  but  the  design  of  Scripture, 
its  purpose  as  a  whole,  is  to  promote  man's  righteous- 
ness. Now,  in  following  out  this  purpose,  it  touches  the 
realms  of  nature  and  history,  and  employs  them  for 
the  inculcation  of  its  truths.  But  as  its  instructions 
were  committed  to  man  for  common  men  in  all  ages, 
we  should  not  expect  to  find  in  the  Old  Testament 
the  technical  terms  of  science.  A  book  thus  written 
would  have  been  unintelligible  for  the  mass  of  man- 
kind. For  this  reason,  the  language  is  phenominal. 
The  sacred  historian  speaks  of  the  sun  just  as  we  do 
in  common  speech,  as  rising  and  setting.  I^or  have 
we  any  evidence  that  the  astronomical  or  other  knowl- 
edge of  the  inspired  writers,  was  superior  to  that  of 
the  men  of  their  time.  They  had  certain  moral  truths 
to  inculcate.  The  author  of  the  first  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis, starts  out  with  the  proposition  that  God  created 
the  universe.  For  a  high  grade  of  intelligence,  that 
was  sufficient.  But  the  Bible  was  addressed  to  men 
'who  needed  to  have  this  lesson  impressed  upon  them, 
and  who  would  have  their  queries,  just  as  your  little 
boy  after  you  have  told  him  this  same  truth,  would 
ask:  "Papa,  did  he  make  tlie  horses?"     And  when 


THE  CREATIVE  WEEK.  10 


you  have  caiiswered  this  query,  you  are  l)y  no  means  at 
the  end  of  your  ckatechism,  for  your  little  questioner  6 
in  rapid  succession  pursues  you:  "Did  he  make  the 
trees?  Did  he  make  the  birds?  "  Xow  in  a  polytheis- 
tic age  when  men  worshipped  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
trees  and  animals,  it  w^as  important  to  be  so  explicit  as 
to  set  their  minds  forever  at  I'est.  When  ^ve  remem- 
ber these  simple  principles  of  interpretation,  and  do 
not  look  for  Astronomy,  Geology  and  Chemistry 
where  they  are  not  to  be  found,  we  shall  discover  that 
a  multitude  of  difficulties  will  vanish.  From  this 
point  of  view,  it  is  not  of  the  slightest  consequence 
whether  the  sacred  historian  had  correct  views  of  the 
relations  of  light  and  darkness.  It  was,  however  im- 
portant that  men  should  know^  that  God  had  established 
the  relation  between  them,  and  that  those  who  in 
certain  a^res  of  the  w^orld  mio^ht  consider  darkness^  as 
tlie  realm  of  the  evil  principle,  should  be  assured  that 
it  was  subject  to  God's  control.  There  is  no  evidence, 
however,  that  the  author  considered  darkness  an  entity 
in  the  passage  before  us. 

The  same  principle  applies  to  the  firmament.  Mr. 
Ingersoll  may  make  himself  as  merry  as  he  pleases 
regarding  this  terminology,  for  we  must  not  forget  the 

1  The  Parsccs  held  this  opinion ;  see  the  Zend-Avesta,  Riga,  177G,  pp.  9,  21,  etc 


20  INGERSOLL  AND  3I0SES. 

lesson  which  is  being  taught  here  is  not  one  in  science. 
Let  us  suppose  Mr.  Ingersoll,  who  manifests  great 
fondness  for  children,  with  a  little  three-year  old  prat- 
tler on  his  knee,  who  has  a  language  all  its  own,  which 
he,  the  father,  understands — would  he  not  use  some  of 
that  child's  words,  and  adapt  himself  to  its  concep- 
tions? Would  he  try  to  strangle  and  confuse  it  with 
the  technics  of  science?  Why,  then,  should  not  our 
Heavenly  Father,  in  revealing  himself  to  the  infancy 
of  the  race,  use  language  which  his  humblest  children 
can  comprehend?  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  author 
of  Genesis  had  unscientilic  notions  in  regard  to  the 
laws  of  evaporation,  and  the  process  by  which  the  rain 
falls;  but  the  expression,  "windows  of  heaven,"  does 
not  indicate  this.  Such  an  interpretation  is  very  child- 
ishly literal,  and  is  about  as  reasonable  as  some  of  the 
cavils  w^liich  your  twelve-year  old  literalist  makes  at 
your  expense.  Why,  what  right  has  a  man  who  talks 
about  the  "  Sun  wooing  with  amorous  kiss  the  weaves 
of  the  sea,"  to  take  exception  to  God's  opening  tlie 
windows  of  heaven,  or  to  his  bowing  the  heavens 
and  coming  down?  (Ps.  xviii,  9.)  Or  shall  we  sup- 
pose, with  some  future  Ingersoll  five  hundred  years 
hence,  that  his  progenitor  literally  believed  that  some 
celestial  being,  called  the  Sun,  made  love  to  some  ter- 


THE  CREATIVE  WEEK.  21 

restrial  maiden  (perliaps  a  mermaid),  called  the  Sea? 
Let  us  have  consistency.  If  Ingersoll  will  expunge 
every  metaphor,  every  figure  of  speech  from  the  Bible, 
then  let  him  speak,  if  he  can,  a  language  unadorned 
with  a  single  rhetorical  figure. 

AVe  pass  to  tlie  creation  of  the  third  day.  Xot  a 
blade  of  grass,  as  he  asserts,  had  ever  been  touched  by 
a  ray  of  light.  IIow^  does  Ingersoll  know  that?  Well 
might  the  words  addressed  to  Job  be  applied  to  him, 
xxxviii,  2-4:  "Who  is  this  that  darkeneth  counsel 
by  words  without  knowledge?  Gird  up  now  thy  loins 
like  a  man;  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer 
thou  me.  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  earth?  declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding." 
How  dare  Ingersoll  assert  that  not  a  blade  of  grass  had 
ever  been  touched  by  a  beam  of  light,  when  on  the 
very  first  day  God  created  light?  How  dare  he  assert 
that  the  sun  and  moon  were  not  made  before  the  fourtli 
day,  when  the  original  does  not  indicate  any  more 
than  that  God  lighted  up  the  luminaries  by  supplying 
the  sun  with  its  proper  atmosphere?* 

Of  course  no  skeptical  address  could  be  complete 
without  reference  to  the  sun's  standing  still.  (Josh. 
X.  12-14.)     I  need  not  remind  you  that  this  is  popular 

^See  Appendix  A. 


22  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

language.  I  do  not,  however,  wish  to  explain  away 
the  miracle  which  underlies  it.  An  omnipotent  God 
is  able  to  arrest  the  course  of  the  universe  without 
disastrous  consequences.  But  such  a  supposition  is 
unnecessary.  We  must  remember  that  Joshua,  when 
we  strip  the  account  of  its  poetical  imagery,  simply 
prayed  for  time  to  overcome  his  enemies. 

Similarly  Agamemnon  is  represented  as  praying  in 
the  Iliad  (ii.  412-414). 

0  Zeus  most  glorious,  most  great 
Shrouded  in  clouds,  dwelling  in  state; 
let  not  the  sun  go  down,  nor  darkness  fall, 
Till  1  overthrow  of  Priamus  the  sooty  hall, 
And  burn  with  hostile  fire  his  gates. 

According  to  this  interpretation,  Joshua's  prayer 
would  be  answered  by  his  being  enabled  to  do  two 
days'  work  in  one,  although  it  seemed  perhaps  to  the 
sacred  writer,  as  he  read  the  account  in  the  book  of 
Jasher,  that  the  prayer  was  literally  answered.  But 
in  case  it  should  be  best  to  insist  on  a  miracle  of  light 
as  well  as  of  prowess,  there  are  doubtless  ways  in  which 
God  could  accomplish  the  desired  phenomenon  with- 
out arrestino^  the  course  of  the  universe. 

]^or  need  we  suppose  that  the  motion  of  the  earth 
was  reversed  so  as  to  afford  a  sign  to  the  languishing 


THE  CUE  A  ri  VE  ^^  'eek.  2  3 

Hezekiah.  Ingersoll  says:  "  How  inucli  easier  it  would 
have  been  to  cure  the  boil."  Such  a  remark  betrays 
a  very  imperfect  conception  of  the  Divine  Being  with 
whom  nothing  is  difficult,  as  well  as  an  entire  misap- 
prehension of  the  importance  of  faith.  How  the 
phenomenon  was  brought  about,  which  is  described 
in  2  Kings,  xx,  11,  as  God's  bringing  back  the  shadow 
ten  degrees,  and  in  Is.  xxxviii,  8,  as  the  sun  returning 
ten  degrees,  we  are  not  bound  to  tell.  It  might  have 
been  as  Keil,  Delitzsch  and  others  have  suggested,  by 
a  refraction  of  light.  In  any  case  it  was  doubtless 
local,  as  appears  from  the  fact  that  ambassadors  from 
the  princes  of  Babylon  probably  came  to  enquire  in 
regard  to  it  (2  Chr.  xxxii,  31). 

I  need  not  point  out  the  absurdity  of  the  assump- 
tion that  the  sacred  writer  gives  the  history  of  astron- 
omy in  the  five  words  "lie  made  the  stars  also."  I 
have  shown  that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  has  a 
moral  end  in  view,  and  this  would  be  subserved  by 
assuring  a  people  who  might  come  in  contact  with 
those  who  worshipped  the  host  of  heaven,  that  God 
made  the  stars.  Even  granting  Ingersoll's  supposi- 
tion, that  the  light  from  the  remotest  nebulae  would 
require  many  millions  of  years  to  come  to  us,  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Biblical  account  which  is  contradic- 


24  IKGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

tory  to  this  assumption,  since  some  of  the  Fathers,  even 
before  modern  scientific  discoveries,  regarded  the  cre- 
ative days  as  indefinite  periods. 

But  this  statement  of  Ingersoll's  rests  upon  an  erro- 
neous assumption  of  Humbold t's.  Herschel  estimated 
that  it  would  take  light  about  fourteen  thousand  years 
to  come  from  the  remotest  objects  visible.  "  But  it 
must  be  admitted,"  says  !Newcomb,^  "  that  Herschel's 
estimate  of  the  extent  of  the  Milky  Way  may  be  far 
too  great,  because  it  rests  on  the  assumption  that  all 
stars  are  of  the  same  absolute  brightness."  Hence, 
according  to  ^ewcomb  and  Proctor,  we  can  only  as- 
sume, in  the  language  of  Professor  Esty,  of  Amherst, 
to  whom  1  am  indebted  for  these  facts,  that  it  takes 
light  some  thousands  of  years  to  go  from  one  limit  to 
another  of  our  visible  universe.  If,  then,  we  inter- 
pret the  days  of  creation  as  indefinite  periods,  as  we 
have  a  perfect  right  to  do,  all  difficulty  vanishes. 
Hence  Genesis  does  not  stand  respecting  astronomy 
in  contradiction  to  science. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  endeavors  to  excite  distrust  against 
the  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  asserting  that  it 
was  written  entirely  without  vowels,  and  without 
being  divided  into  chapters  and  verses.  He  is  how- 
ever, entirely  ignorant  of  the  scrupulous  care  which 

1  Popular  Astronomy,  New  York  1878,  p.  481. 


THE  CREATIVE  WEEK.  25 

the  Hebrews  employed  in  preservini^  tlieir  iiianu- 
scripts.  These  were  at  an  early  period  divided  into 
sections,'  while  the  slight  variations  which  have  crept 
into  the  sacred  text  are  of  interest  to  the  critic,  they 
do  not,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  essentially  effect  its 
teaching. 

1.  These  Sections,  termed  in  Hebrew,  Parashas,  are  attributed  in  the 
Babylonian  Gemara  Berachoth  12b  to  Moses:  "Every  Parasha  which  Mo- 
ses, our  teacher,  divided,  we  divide;  those  which  he  did  not  divide  we  do 
not  divide."  Hupfeld  remarks  in  the  Htudien  und  Kritiken,  Hamburg,  1837, 
p.  840 :  "  that  these  divisions  are  to  be  referred  back  to  the  earliest  copies 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,"  Compare  Home,  On  Introduction  to  tlie  Critical 
Study  a7id  Knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  London   18.9,  pp.  35-36. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  FIRST  FAMILY  IN  EDEN. 

SuM:\rA"RY:  Are  the  two  Accounts  of  Man's  Creation  Contradic- 
tory?— The  Logical  Order  of  the  Facts  in  Genesis  II — Did  God 
seek  to  palm  off  an  Animal  on  Man  as  Helpmeet  (!)  ? — The 
Creation  of  Woman  from  a  Rib — Plato's  account  of  the  Orig-in 
of  the  sexes — What  is  the  Scriptural  test  of  Salvation? — 
Shameless  Travesty  of  the  Doctrine  of  Retribution — "  God 
Hates  a  Critic." — The  Narrative  of  the  Fall  Confirmed  by 
Tradition — Its  Consequences  Illustrated  by  Sacred  History — 
Why  did  God  not  blot  out  Adam? 

Ingersoll  claims  that  the  two  accounts  given  of  the 
creation  of  man,  in  the  first  two  chaj)ters  of  Genesis, 
are  contradictory.  This  is  not  the  case.  In  the  first 
cliapter,  and  the  first  three  verses  of  the  second,  an 
account,  is  given  of  God's  creative  week.  Man  is 
mentioned  as  his  final  creation,  because  he  is  the  king 
for  whom  the  earth  is  prepared.  In  the  second  cliap- 
ter, supplementary  matter  is  introduced,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  author's  plan,  would  hav^e  been  out  of 
place  in  the  first.     The  facts  mentioned  in  the  second 

(20) 


THE  FIRST  FAMILY  IX  EDEX.  2? 


chapter  are  put  in  logical  rather  than  in  chronolo.n^ical 
order,  as  introducing  the  garden  and  woman.  First 
plants  are  spoken  of  (ii,  5).  Then  it  is  said  that  there 
was  not  a  man  to  till  the  o-round.  In  this  connection 
his  creation  is  mentioned  (ii,  7),  afterwards  the  garden 
which  he  was  to  till  (ii,  8),  and  the  origin  of  the  trees, 
as  introducing  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil  (ii,  9).  In  like  manner  the  creation  of  the  ani- 
mals is  introduced  as  preparatory  to  the  account  of 
Eve's  creation  (ii,  18-19).  Mr.  Ingersoll  profanely 
suggests  that  God  tried  to  palm  off  one  of  the  animals 
on  Adam  as  his  helpmeet.  The  narrative  indicates 
nothing  of  the  kind.  Like  a  wise  father  he  does  not  pre- 
sent the  sweetest  and  best  of  his  creatures  to  Adam  un- 
til he  has  caused  him  to  feel  his  loneliness  by  showing 
him  that  there  is  not  one  among  the  brutes  who  can  be 
his  companion,  (ii.  20).  There  was  certainly  divine 
wisdom  in  thus  enabling  Adam  to  appreciate  that 
choicest  of  all  earthly  gitts,  a  true  and  loving  wife. 
A  man  entirely  ignorant  of  oriental  imagery,  may 
mock,  if  he  will,  at  the  idea  of  God's  making  woman 
out  of  the  rib  of  a  man.  His  laughter  is  simply  the 
insicrnia  of  his  iccnorance.  The  word  which  is  trans- 
lated  rib  in  this  passage,  elsewhere,  means  side.  The 
Arabs  say  of  an  intimate  friend,  Jniva  liz^i — He  is 


28  INGEBSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

my  side,  and  Martial  (vi.  68:  4)  speaks  of  a  constant 
companion  or  friend,  as  a  dulce  latiis,  a  sweet  side.^ 
]^ow,  whether  we  take  the  description  of  woman's  cre- 
ation literally  or  not,  there  is  a  deep  significance  in  the 
fact  that  she  was  derived  from  his  side  by  which  she 
is  to  stand ;  so  that,  as  Knoble  says,  if  it  was  the  pur- 
pose of  the  author  to  say  that  woman  was  derived  from 
any  part  of  man,  he  could  not  well  have  chosen  any- 
thing better  than  a  rib.''  And  Matthew  Henry  pithily 
observes:  "  AVoman  was  made  of  a  rib  out  of  the  side 
of  Adam ;  not  made  out  of  his  head  to  top  him,  not  out 
of  his  feet  to  be  trampled  upon  by  him,  but  out  of  his 
side  to  be  equal  with  him,  under  his  arm  to  be  pro- 
tected, and  near  his  heart  to  be  beloved."  Certainly 
this  simple  narrative  does  not  suffer  when  compared 
with  Plato's  account  of  the  origin  of  the  sexes,  which 
are  represented  as  androgenous — that  is,  as  existing 
together,  having  two  faces,  four  hands,  and  four  feet, 
and  as  being  halved  by  Juj^iter.^  E^or  is  the  story  of 
woman's  creation,  or  any  other  fact  of  Bible  history 
made  a  test  of  man's  salvation,  as  Ingersoll,  with  blas- 
phemous wit,  seems  to  assert;  but  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  (Acts,  xvi,  31),  which  is  manifest  in  a 

1  See  Knoble  in  Dillmann's  Genesis,  Leipzig,  1875,  p.  78. 
'■^Die  Genesis,  Leipzig,  1852,  p.  34. 
3  Symposium,  189  etc. 


THE  FIRST  FAMILY  IN  EDEN.  29 

pure  and  holy  life.  (James,  ii,  22.)  That  a  defaul- 
ter and  adulterer  should  be  received  into  the  heav- 
enly kingdom  on  the  score  of  his  belief  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  iinds  no  warrant  in 
the  Bible.  Isaiah  represents  God  as  indignantly 
denouncing  those  who  engage  in  acts  of  worship, 
while  their  lives  are  full  of  wickedness,  (i,  10-17.) 
David  is  not  only  sternly  rebuked  for  his  abom- 
inable sin,  but  he  is  assured  that  on  account  of  it 
the  sword  shall  not  depart  from  his  house  (2  Sam.  xii, 
10),  Christ  says  of  the  Pharisees,  which  devour  widow^i  ; 
houses,  and  for  a  pretense  make  long  prayers:  "  These 
shall  receive  greater  damnation"  (Mark  xii,  40).  And 
it  is  written  in  Revelation  (xxii,  15)  respecting  the 
lost;  "  For  without  are  dogs,  and  sorcerers,  and  whore- 
mungers,  and  murderers,  and  idolaters,  and  whosoever 
loveth  and  maketli  a  lie."  Kow  what  a  shameless 
travesty  it  is  of  the  doctrine  of  retribution  for  Inger- 
sollto  imply  that  the  Bible  teaches,  or  that  the  church 
teaches,  that  a  man  will  be  saved  on  the  score  of 
orthodoxy,  whatever  he  may  do.  Such  a  statement  is 
infamous !  After  making  this  burlesque  of  the  doctrine 
of  rewards  and  punishments,  Ingersoll  remarks  that 
"of  all  the  authors  in  the  world,  God  hates  a  critic 
the  worst."     There  may  be  some  truth  in  this  state- 


30  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

ment,  so  far  as  the  criticisms  are  made  up  of  misrep- 
resentations, for  we  read  that  tlie  Lord  liatetli  a  lying 
tongue  (Prov.  vi,  IT).  Certainly  that  is  not  honest 
criticism  which  caricatures,  not  only  the  doctrine  of 
retribution,  but  also  that  of  the  temptation.  A  true 
critic  would  not  make  light  of  the  scriptural  represen- 
tation of  the  Serpent  as  the  tempter,  especially  when 
he  finds  that  account  confirmed  by  some  of  the 
most  ancient  traditions  of  the  race  as  contained 
in  the  Zend-Avesta,^  and  the  Chaldean  tablets 
as  given  by  George  Smith.'"^  AVhile  there  are 
striking  similarities  in  these  traditions,  the  Biblical 
account  transcends  the  other  two  in  its  noble  simplic- 
ity. Dazzled  by  the  serpent's  promise,  that  on  eating 
of  the  forbidden  fruit  their  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and 
they  shall  become  as  Gods,  knowing  good  and  evil, 
both  Eve  and  Adam  partake.     At  once  the  sad  conse- 

1  According  to  the  tradition,  contained  in  the  Zend  Avesta,  man  (Mashia 
and  Mashiane)  was  at  first  created  pure  and  holy,  and  so  remained,  until 
Ahriman,  who  had  come  long  before  into  the  world  in  tlie  shape  of  a  ser- 
pent, corrupted  their  tlioughts.  Windischmann  (Zoroastrische  Studien.  Berlin, 
1863,  p.  212)  remarks,  that  "  the  account  of  the  lall  of  man  has  such  an  ev- 
ident similarity  with  that  of  Genesis,  that  at  first  sight,  one  might  be  in- 
clined to  suspect  its  derivation  from  that  source.  But  on  closer  considera- 
tion, it  shows  quite  as  great  discrepancies,  and  so  peculiar  traits,  that  this 
version  of  the  primitive  tradition  must  pass  as  original, although  it  is  infer- 
ior to  that  of  Genesis  in  noble  simplicity."  Compare,  as  to  the  teaching  of 
the  Parsees  on  this  subject,  Spiegel,  Farsismus  in  Herzog's  Real  Encyklopadie, 
Gotha,  1859,  p.  118,  and  Bunseu,  Die  Einheit  der  Eeligionen,  Berlin,  1870,  Vol. 
I,  p.  35. 

2  The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  New  York,  1876,  p.  87  etc. 


THE  FIRST  FAMILY  IX  EDEX.  31 


qnences  of  man's  disobedience  are  portrayed.  In 
Adam's  indirectly  charging  God  with  being  the  author 
of  his  temptation  (Gen.  iii.  12),  we  liave  a  proof  of 
the  working  of  sin,  which  develops  in  natural  yet 
frightful  consequences  in  the  murder  of  Abel,  in  the 
increasing  wickedness  of  the  Cainitic  race,  which  fin- 
ally, through  the  beauty  of  its  female  representatives, 
draws  away  the  Sethites,  the  children  of  God  (Gen.' 
vi.  2  ^),  from  purity,  so  that  at  the  last  the  earth  is  full 
of  violence,  and  but  one  family,  that  of  ]N^oah,  remains 
true  amidst  the  general  apostacy.  It  is  here  that 
Ingersoll  vents  his  spleen  against  the  divine  govern- 
ment, and  suggests  that  "  God  ought  to  have  rubbed 
him  [Adam]  out  at  once  [immediately  after  the  fill)]. 
He  might  have  known  that  no  good  could  come  of 
starting  a  world  like  that  ....  people  got  worse 
and  worse.  God,  vou  must  recollect,  was  holdinof 
the  reins  of  government,  but  he  did  nothing  for 
them.  And  the  world  got  worse  every  day,  and  finally 
he  concluded  to  drown  them.  Yet  that  same  God  has 
the  impudence  to  tell  me  how  to  raise  my  own  chil- 
dren. AVhat  would  you  think  of  a  neighbor  who  had 
just  killed  his  babes,  giving  you  his  views  on  domestic 
economy  ? " 

1  See  Appendix  B. 


32  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

There  is  no  department  of  human  knowledge  where 
questions  cannot  be  raised  which  baffle  us.  How 
much  more  in  the  reahn  of  theology,  where  the  infi- 
nite is  a  factor.  Then,  too,  we  must  remember,  that 
when  the  courts  sit  in  judgment  upon  men,  thej  col- 
lect every  scrap  of  evidence  which  can  bear  upon  the 
case  before  they  decide  upon  its  merits.  !N"ow,  when 
Ingersoll  seeks  to  impeach  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth, 
it  should  only  be  after  a  full  knowledge  of  the  facts. 
But  such  a  trial  is  from  the  nature  of  the  case  impos- 
sible. It  cannot  be  stated  that  God  did  nothing  for 
the  world;  the  facts  are  too  meagre  to  allow  of  that; 
still,  the  presumptive  evidence  is  the  other  way;  for 
we  read  that  the  Sethi tes  began,  at  an  early  period,  to 
call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  (Gen.  iv.  26),  and  that 
Noah  was  a  preacher  of  righteousness  (2  Peter  ii,  5). 
So  far  as  God's  delay  of  the  judgment  was  concerned, 
it  was  a  mercy  to  men,  for  we  have  no  evidence  in  the 
Scriptures  that  God  annihilates  them  after  death,  or 
that  the  future  state  of  the  wicked  is  one  of  enjoy- 
ment; therefore,  by  allowing  them  to  live  as  long  as 
possible,  God  at  least  granted  them  the  pleasures  of 
this  life. 

Ingersoll,  however,  intimates  that  all  the  misery  in- 
cident to  the  deluge  might  have  been  avoided  if  God 


THE  FIBST  FAMILY  IN  EDEX.  33 

had  destroyed  Adam  and  Eve  after  the  fall.     But  does 
that  follow?    So  long  as  God  had  resolved  to  people 
the  earth  with  free  moral  agents,  and  there  was  temp- 
tation in  the  world,  can  it  be  affirmed  that  any  man, 
subsequently  created,  would  have  been  more  likely  to- 
stand  than  Adam?    But  some  one  may  raise  the  ques- 
tion, could  not  God  have  removed  all  temptation  from 
the  earth?    Perhaps  so.     But  then  where  would  have- 
been  man's  virtue?     These  questions  are  entirely  too 
deep  for  ns,  and  we  feel  the  truth  of  Zophar's  words,. 
Job  xi,  T:   "Canst  thou  find  out  the  depth  of  God?' 
Canst  thou  find  out  the  end  of  the  Almighty?     It  is- 
as  high  as  heaven;  what  canst  thou  do?     deeper  than, 
sheol;   what  canst  thou  know?    The  measure  thereof 
is  longer  than  the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea." 

The  illustration  by  which  Ingersoll  compares  God,, 
in  visiting  the  earth  with  a  deluge,  to  a  father  who 
murders  his  own  babes,  is  not  to  the  point.  Nothing 
can  be  more  horrible  than  the  murder  of  innocent 
babes.  But  the  world  which  God  proposed  to  destroy 
had  grown  old  in  sin  in  spite  of  infinite  patience  (1 
Peter,  iii,  20),  and  Noah's  preaching  (2  Peter,  ii,  5) 
Its  inhabitants,  therefore,  can  in  no  respect  be  com- 
pared to  innocent  children,  for  we  read  (Gen.  vi,  11):: 
"  The  earth  also  was  corrupt  before  Go^,  and  the  earth 
3 


INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 


was  tilled  with  violence."  What  remained  then  for 
God  to  do,  who  had  seen  all  the  Sethites  drawn  aside 
from  virtue,  except  ^N^oah,  but  with  one  fell  stroke  to 
remove  the  earth's  degraded  inhabitants,  and  then  to 
disinfect  it  with  the  waters  of  the  flood? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  DELUGE  AND  THE  CONFUSION  OF 
TONGUES. 

Summary:  Traditions — Was  the  Flood  Partial? — Objection  as  to 
Flight  of  Birds — Window  or  System  of  Windows  ? — Subsidence 
— The  Origin  of  the  Rainbow — "  Why  did  God  not  make  Noah 
in  the  first  place?  " — The  Confusion  of  Tongues — Probability  of 
the  Account — Recapitulation. 

This  grand  catastrophe  has  exerted  a  deep  moral 
influence  upon  the  earth's  inhabitants,  as  is  indicated 
bj  the  many  traditions  which  have  been  preserved  re 
specting  the  flood  among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  in 
whose  accounts  of  this  great  event  we  have  a  conflrma- 
tion  of  its  reality.* 

It  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  suppose  a  universal 

deluge.     Even  the  language  which  speaks  of  all  flesh 

as  dying  (Gen.  vii,  21,)  may  be  understood  relatively 

with  reference  to  the  world  as  known  to  the  writer, 

which  was  very  much  smaller  than  ours,  Ingersoll  ob- 

i 

1  See  Appendix,  C. 

(35) 


36  INGEESOLL  AND  MOSES. 

jects:  "  If  [the  flood]  was  partial,  why  did  J^oah  save 
the  birds?  An  ordinary  bird,  tending  strictly  to  busi- 
ness, can  beat  a  partial  flood."  The  whole  force  of 
this  objection  depends  upon  facts  which  have  not  yet 
been  determined  by  observation.  Although  almost 
all  birds  are  migratory,  with  the  exception,  of  course, 
of  certain  fowls,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  their 
migration  is  dependent  upon  changes  in  the  weather. 
Prof.  Newton,  of  Cambridge,  England,  says:^  "As  a 
rule,  it.  would  seem  as  though  birds  were  not  depend- 
ent on  the  weather  to  any  great  degree.  Occasionally 
the  return  of  the  Swallow  or  the  Nio^htinccale  mav  be 
somewhat  delayed,  but  most  sea-fowls  may  be  trusted, 
it  is  said,  as  the  almanac  itself  "Were  they  satellites 
revolving  around  this  earth,  their  arrival  could  hardly 
be  more  surely  calculated  by  an  astronomer.  Foul 
weather  or  fair,  heat  or  cold,  the  Pufiins  repair  to  some 
of  their  stations  punctually  on  a  given  day,  as  if  their 
movements  were  regulated  by  clock-work."  iN'ow  who 
shall  say,  in  view  of  the  above  statements,  the  torrents 
of  rain,  and  the  rapid  submergence,  that  the  fowl  be- 
longing to  the  district  in  question,  were  able  to  escape? 
The  objection  that  the  ark  was  not  sufficient  in  size 
to  accommodate  the  animals,  comes  from  massing 
together   difficulties  which   do  not   exist.     The   ark, 

i  Encyclopsedia  Britannica,  New  York,  1878,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  768. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  COXFUSION  OF  TONGUES.  37 

according  to  Tiele,  contained  three  and  a  half  millions 
of  cubic  feet,  and  deducting  nine-tenths  of  the  space 
for  provisions,  afforded  amply  suflScient  room  for  seven 
thousand  pairs  of  animals.  But  if  we  confine  the 
deluge  to  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  the  fauna  peculiar 
to  that  region,  of  which  living  representatives  were 
preserved,  would  doubtless  be  very  much  less. 

IngersolPs  witticism  about  the  ventilation,  is  simply 
the  result  of  ignorance.  Gesenius  understands  the 
Hebrew  word  Zohar  (Gen.  vi.  16),  which  does  not 
occur  elsewhere  in  the  singular,  as  indicating  a  system 
of  windows,  which,  according  to  Knobl^  and  Delitzsch, 
were  to  be  made  at  a  distance  of  a  cubit  below  the  roof. 

I^or  are  the  objections  to  the  amount  of  rain  which 
would  be  required,  valid.  'We  read  (Gen.  vii.  11) 
that  "  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up, 
and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  opened."  The  for- 
mer expression,  to  which  Ingersoll  does  not  allude, 
probabl}^  denotes  a  subsidence,  which  occurring,  ac- 
cording to  Hugh  Miller,^  at  the  rate  of  four  hundred 
feet  a  day  would  bring  the  mountains  of  Ararat  below 
the  level  of  the  deluge.  The  decadence  of  the  flood 
would  be  caused  by  the  rising  of  the  tract  of  country' 

^  See  his  interestins:  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  deluge  in  The  Testimony  of 
the  Rocks,   Bostoii  1870,  p.  358. 

2  Compare  LyeU's  Principles  of  Geology,  New  York,  1876,  Vol.  II,  p.  101. 


dS  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

until  at  last  the  ark  rested  on  one  of  the  mountains  of 
Ararat,  not  on  the  highest  peak,  as  Ingersoll,  who  prob- 
ably knows  nothing  of  Hebrew,  supposes.  Such  a  sub- 
mergence, to  a  limited  extent,  is  not  without  analogy  in 
what  may  be  called  the  ordinary  course  of  things.* 
I*^or  does  the  narrative  in  Genesis  ix.  18-16,  right- 
ly translated,  necessarily  indicate  that  the  rainbow 
had  not  existed  before  God  made  his  covenant  with 
]^oah.  The  passage  reads  as  follows:  "And  Elo- 
him  said,  this  is  the  sign  of  the  covenant  which 
I  am  establishing  between  me  and  between  you, 
and  between  every  living  creature  that  is  with 
you  unto  everlasting  generations.  My  bow  have  I 
set  in  the  cloud,  and  it  shall  become  a  sign  of  a 
covenant  between  me  and  between  the  earth.  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  I  bring  ^  a  cloud  upon  the 
earth,  and  the  bow  shall  appear  in  the  cloud,  that  I 
will  remember  the  covenant  between  me  and  between 
you,"  etc.  That  is,  God  makes  the  rainbow,  which 
was  already  in  existence,  a  sign  of  His  covenant  with 
Noah,  just  as  Portia  might  take  a  ring  from  her  fin- 
ger and  put  it  on  Bassanio's  hand,  making  it  hence- 
forth a  sign  of  their  mutual  troth. 

1  "  In  June,  1819,  the  sea  flowed  in  by  the  eastern  mouth  of  the  Indus,  and 
in  a  few  hours  converted  a  tract  of  land,  2,000  square  miles  in  area,  into  an 
inland  sea,  or  lagoon."  Lyell's  Principles  of  Geology,  New  York,  1876,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  99-100. 

2  Literally :  "  When  I  cloud  a  cloud." 


THE  DELUGE  AND  CONFUSION  OF  TONGUES.   39 

The  question  ''  why  God  did  not  make  Xoah  in  the 
first  place,  [since]  he  knew  that  lie  would  have  to 
drown  Adam  and  Eve  and  all  his  family,"  is  slightly 
absurd,  as  Adam  had  already  Leen  dead  726  years 
when  the  flood  came.  So  long  as  God  has  not  made 
men  machines,  but  has  endowed  them  with  free  will, 
it  is  quite  probable  that  if  He  had  placed  Noah  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  the  result  would  have  been  substan- 
tially the  same  as  in  the  case  of  Adam.  We  are  asked 
why  God  should  want  to  drown  the  animals?  There 
is  no  evidence  that  He  did  wish  to  drown  them ;  but  in 
this  case  as  well  as  since  that  time,  the  animals  have 
not  only  suffered  from  their  mutual  ferocity,  but  also 
on  account  of  their  contiguity  to  man.  In  the  same 
connection  Mr.  Ingersoll  asks:  "  Is  it  possible  that 
any  one  believes  that  [the  confusion  of  tongues]  is  the 
reason  why  we  have  the  variety  of  languages  in  the 
world?  "  I  answer,  that  the  account  in  Genesis  does 
not  require  us  to  believe  that  this  was  the  only  and 
main  reason  for  the  differences  which  we  detect  in  the 
lan(ruao:es  of  earth.  The  narrative  states  that  the  de- 
scendants  of  Noah  were  clannish,  and  that  God  resolved 
to  scatter  them,  and  that  he  accomplished  his  purpose 
by  confounding  their  speech.  If  we  admit  that  there 
is  a  God,  and  that  He  is  the  moral  ruler  of  the  universe, 
I  do  not  see  the  slightest  difficulty  in  accepting  this 


40  INGEESOLL  AND  MOSES. 

account  as  true.  ]^or  does  our  belief  in  it  hinder  us 
from  holding  that  manifold  other  causes  have  contribu- 
ted to  the  differences  which  may  exist  in  the  various 
main  divisions  of  human  speech. 

It  is  now  time  for  us  to  ask  ourselves  whether  the 
objections  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  urges  against  the  first 
eleven  chapters  of  Genesis,  stripped  of  their  rhetorical 
embellishments,  constitute  a  sufiicient  reason  why  we 
should  renounce  God  and  the  Christian  system. 

We  have  seen  that  the  objections  brought  against 
the  narrative  of  the  creation,  in  Ingersoll's  case,  as  he 
states  them,  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  are  beneath 
contempt.  They  are  so  full  of  errors  as  to  disgust 
any  scholar.  But  it  maybe  said:  granted  that  this  is 
so;  have  there  not  been  objections  raised  by  those 
whom  we  are  bound  to  respect?  I  admit  it  so  far  as 
they  have  been  urged  in  a  scholarly  spirit,  but  even 
those  who  consider  the  account  of  creation  mythical, 
are  not  by  any  means,  as  a  general  thing,  atheists  or 
even  deists,  although  they  are  inclined  to  deny  the 
reality  of  miracles.  It  should,  however,  be  remembered 
that  such  an  eminent  Scientist  as  Prof  Dana,  finds 
no  essential  contradiction  between  Genesis  and  Sci- 
ence.*    However  correct  his  views  may  be,  let  it  not  be 

1 "  The  order  of  events  in  the  Scripture  cosmogony  corresponds  essentially 
with  that  which  has  been  given  [by  Dana].    There  was  first  a  void  and 


THE  DELUGE  AND  CONFUSION  OF  TONGUES.  41 

forgotten  that  the  Bible,  from  the  nature  of  tlie  case, 
could  not  employ  scientific  language,  nor  does  it  pro- 
fess to  teach  Science.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that 
the  charo^es  ur2:ed  ao^ainst  the  narrative  in  the  first  two 
chapters  of  Genesis,  are  based  upon  false  pre-supposi- 
tions.  The  arguments  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  urges 
against  the  temptation,  the  fall,  the  dehige,  and  the 
confusion  of  tongues — have  arisen  from  the  virtual 
denial  that  God  exercises  a  providential  care  over  the 
universe;  that  He  has  made  men  in  his  own  image, 
gifted  with  the  power  of  choice,  and  has  left  them  to 
develop  a  character  which  involves  the  happiness  or 
misery  of  themselves,  and  multitudes  with  whom  they 
may  be  associated. 

formless  earth  :  this  was  UteraUy  true  of  the  '  heavens  and  the  earth,'  if  they 
were  in  the  condition  of  a  gaseous  fluid.    The  succession  is  as  follows: 

"(1)    Light. 

"(2)    The  dividing  of  the  waters  below  from  the  waters  above  the  earth. 

"  (3)    The  dividing  of  the  land  and  water  dn  the  earth. 

"  (4)  Vegetation  :  which  Mose-',  appreciating  the  philosophical  character- 
istic of  the  new  creation,  distinj^uishing  it  from  previous  inorganic  sub- 
stances, defines  as  that '  wiiicli  has  seed  in  itself.' 

"(5)    The  sun,  moon  and  stars. 

"  (6)  The  lower  animals :  those  that  swarm  in  the  waters,  and  the  creeping 
and  flying  species  of  the  land. 

"  (7)    Beasts  of  prey  — ,'  creeping"  here  means  '  prowling'  [?]. 

"(8)    Man. 

"In  this  succession  we  observe  not  merely  an  order  of  events,  like  that 
deduced  from  science:  there  is  a  system  in  the  arrangement,  and  a  far- 
reaching  prophecy,  to  which  philosophy  could  not  have  attained,  however 
instructed."  Dana,  Manual  of  Geology,  New  York,  1S76,  pp.  G78-7i). 


CHAPTEE  V. 

ISRAEL'S  EXODUS   AND  WANDERINGS. 

Summaky:  Alleged  Clerical  Idiocy — Is  the  Increase  of  the  Israelites 
in  Eg-ypt  Incredible? — A  Probable  Estimate — The  Number  of 
First-bo  n  Children — "The  Champion  Bird-eaters  " — "Not  a 
Blade  of  Grass  in  the  Desert  of  Sinai" — Palmer's  Testimony 
— Ebers — Stanley — Palestine,  "a  Frightful  Country  " — Causes 
of  Desolation — Hornets — The  Seven  Nations  and  Israel — The 
Land  as  Promised — Wild  Beasts — Reptiles — Manna — Had  the 
Israelites  Other  Means  of  Sustenance? — Clothing  in  the  Wild- 
derness — The  Holy  Anointing  Oil — The  Adornments  of  the  Tab- 
ernacle— Fruit  after  the  Fourth  Year — Aaron's  Consecration — 
"The  Infinite  Prestidigitator." 

I  NOW  pass  to  that  part  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  address 
which  treats  of  certain  things  in  the  Israelitish  history 
and  laws  which  he  considers  inconsistent  with  the 
theory  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament,  closing 
with  a  general  attack  on  the  Bible.  I  shall  follow  the 
order  of  the  objections  given  in  the  address,  even  at 
the  risk  of  seeming  desultory  and  disconnected. 

Col.  Ingersoll  asks  whether  "  there  is  a  minister  in 

(42) 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERINGS.  43 

the  city  of  Chicago  that  will  certify  to  his  own  idi- 
ocy by  claiming  that  [the  Israelites]  could  have  in- 
creased to  three  millions  in  two  hundred  and  fifteen 
years?"  Whether  any  one  may  choose  to  call  me  an 
idiot  or  not,  I  believe  that  the  seventy  Israelites  who 
were  in  Egypt,  after  Jacob's  family  had  all  been  gath- 
ered thither,  increased  in  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years  to  two  millions  of  people.  You  will  see  that 
Ingersoll,  who  follows  a  certain  class  of  interpreters, 
has  set  the  time  too  low  by  two  hundred  and  fifteen 
years,  since  Ex.  xii,  40,  shows  that  the  period  of 
Israel's  sojourn  in  Egypt  was  twice  as  long  as  he  has 
given  it.^  The  passage  in  Genesis  (xv.  13)  which 
speaks  of  four  hundred  years  as  the  time  of  the  op- 
pression, is  merely  a  round  number,  which  does  not 
conflict  with  the  exact  period.  Then  Ingersoll,  in  set- 
ting the  number  of  the  Israelites  at  three  millions,  reck- 
ons at  least  half  a  million  more  than  Colenso,  who, 
while  seeking  to  show  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Penta- 
teuch narratives,  tries  to  be  careful  in  his  statements. 
I  believe,  then,  that  seventy  Israelites  increased  in  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  to  two  millions  :(1)  by  reason 
of  God's  blessing,  he  had  promised  Abraham  that 
his  seed  should  be  as  the  star3;(2)  on  account  of  their 

1 "  Now  the  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  sojourned  in 
Egypt,  was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years." 


44  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

residence  in  Egypt.  This  country  is  renowned  among 
classic  writers,  and  even  at  the  present  day,  for  the 
fruitfulness  of  its  women!*  Kiel,  in  his  commentary 
on  Ex.  xii.  37-41,  has  clearly  shown  that  forty-one 
persons,  counting  ten  generations,  which  is  perfectly 
legitimate,  as  according  to  1  Chr.  vii,  20-27,  there 
were  from  ten  to  eleven  generations  ^  between  Ephraim 
and  Joshua,  would  yield  the  number  claimed.®  If  we 
reckon  an  average  of  six  children  to  a  family  in  the 
first  six  generations,  and  of  four  children  to  each  fam- 
ily in  the  next  four  generations,  we  should  have,  on  the 
supposition  that  there  were  as  many  boys  as  girls  at 
tlie  time  of  the  Exodus,  478,224  males  above  twenty 

1  See  Appendix  D, 

2  The  promise  as  given  to  Abraham,  Gen.  xv,  16,  that  his  descendants 
should  return  in  the  fourth  generation,  may  seem  to  be  in  contradiction  to 
this  statement.  It  must,  liowever,  be  remembered  that  the  word  dor,  like 
i^ecidum,  originally  designated  a  period  of  a  hundred  years;  but  afterwards, 
as  human  life  was  abbreviated,  it  indicated  only  thirty  or  forty  years.  In 
the  patriarchal  age,  when  God  was  speaking  with  Abraham,  it  was  natural 
tha.t  he  should  use  the  longer  dt  signation,  and  assure  him  that  his  descend- 
ants would  leave  Egypt  in  the  four  hundredth  year  of  their  sojourn. 

3  Kiel -says :  "  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  assume  that  the  numbers  given  in- 
cluded not  only  the  descendants  of  the  seventy  souls  who  went  down  with 
Jacob,  but  also  those  of  'several  thousand  manservants  and  maid-ser 
vants,  who  accompanied  them.  For,  apart  from  the  fact  that  we  are  un- 
warranted in  concluding,  that  because  Abraham  had  318  fighting  servants 
the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob  had  several  thousand,  and  took  them  with  them 
into  Egypt ;  even  if  the  servants  had  been  received  into  the  religious  fellow- 
ship of  Israel  by  circumcision,  they  cannot  have  been  reckoned  among  the 
600,000  who  went  out,  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  are  not  included  in 
the  seventy  souls  who  went  down  to  Egypt ;  and  in  chapter  i,  5,  the  num< 
bers  of  those  who  came  out,  is  placed  in  unmistakable  connection  witt!» 
the  number  of  those  who  went  in." 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERINGS.  45 

years  of  age,  wliicli  with  125,326  men  from  the  ninth 
generation,  would  make  003,550,  or  the  exact  number 
as  given  in  Num.  i,  46.  jS"ow,  who  that  have  heard 
of  the  hirge  families  that  were  common  in  this  coun- 
try at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  often 
numberinir  from  six  to  twelve  children,  and  who  have 
read  in  Ex.  i,  T,  that  the  Israelites  "  multiplied  and 
waxed  exceedingly,"  can  feel  very  much  aggrieved  if 
Mr.  Ingersoll  should  choose  to  call  them  idiots  for 
believinijthe  Biblical  account? 

In  the  same  connection,  it  is  alleged  as  equally  in- 
credible, that  the  number  of  first-born  children  at  the 
time  ot  the  first  census  should  have  amounted  only  to 
22,273,  because  the  women  in  Israel  must  have  had, 
according  to  Ingersoll,  on  an  average  sixty-eight  chil- 
dren apiece.  This  estimate  is  founded  on  an  erroneous 
supposition.  It  seems  probable  that  only  those  who 
were  born  after  the  command  was  issued  to  consecrate 
every  first-born  son,  are  reckoned.  It  certainly  would 
be  difiicult  to  prove,  with  our  data,  that  the  number 
given  is  out  of  proportion.  Ingersoll,  in  speaking  of 
the  daily  births,, says:  "  We  know  that  there  must  have 
been,  among  three  millions  of  people,  about  three 
hundred  a  day;"  and  then  comes  the  remarkable  state- 
ment that  "every  woman  had  to  have  a  sacrifice  of  a 
couple  of  doves,  a  couj)le  of  pigeons,  and  the  priests 


46  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

had  to  eat  those  pigeons  in  the  most  holy  place"  (Lev. 
vi:26;  vii:  6.);  consequently  he  goes  on  to  show  that 
at  that  time  the  three  priests  must  have  eaten  two 
hundred  birds  apiece  a  day,  and  calls  them  "the 
champion  bird  eaters  of  the  world."  ^  'Now  what 
does  Ingersoll  mean  by  making  such  an  assertion  as 
that?  There  is  nothing  of  the  sort  in  the  Bible.  If 
we  turn  to  Leviticus  xii:  6,  8,  we  shall  find  that  the 
mother,  if  wealthy,  was  to  bring  a  lamb  for  a  burnt 
offering,  and  a  young  pigeon  or  a  turtle-dove  for  a 
sin-offering.  If  she  was  poor,  she  might  bring  two 
turtle-doves  or  two  young  pigeons — the  one  for  a  burnt 
offering,  the  other  for  a  sin-offering.  The  burnt  offer- 
ing was  consumed  entire'  (Lev.  i,  9,  17).  Hence  the 
lamb  and  one  of  the  turtle-doves  or  two  young  pigeons, 
would  not  fall  to  the  priests,  the  sin-offerings  however 
were  to  be  eaten  by  them. 

But  Dr.  Jamieson  has  correctly  shown  that  this  law, 
thouorh  enacted  in  the  wilderness,  was  not  enforced 
there,  and  adds:  "  It  is  expressly  said  in  this  chapter 
[Lev.  xii,  3,]  that  these  sacrifices  were  not  to  be  offered 

1.  According  to  Colenso  (The  Pentateuch  and  book  of  Joshua  critically  ex- 
amined, London,  1862,  Part  I,  p.  128),  whom  Ingersoll  seems  in  the  main  to 
foUow,  although  with  a  generous  increase  of  his  estimates :  "  The  very 
pigeons  to  be  brought  as  sm-offerings  for  the  birth  of  children  would  have 
averaged  .  .  .  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  a  day ;  and  each  priest  would 
have  had  to  eat  daily,  eighty-eight  for  his  own  portion  '  in  the  most  holy 
place.' " 

2  Compare  Speaker's  Commentary,  New  York,  1871,  p.  496. 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERIXGS.  47 

till  after  the  circumcision  of  the  child;  but  as  it  clearly 
appears  (Josh,  v,  5-7),  that  the  rite  of  circumcision  was 
not  observed  during  the  wanderings  through  the  wil- 
derness, there  was  no  occasion  for  pigeons."  * 

At  this    point  Ingersoll  inquires:    "  AVhere  were 
these  Jew^s?    They  were  upon  the  desert  of  Sinai;  and 

Sahara  compared  to  that  is  a  garden 

There  was  not  a  blade  of  grass  in  the  desert  of 
Sinai."  This  assertion,  on  the  kindest  possible  con- 
struction, betrays  an  astounding  amount  of  ignorance. 
Prof.  E.  II.  Palmer,  of  Cambridge  University,  England, 
who  accompanied  the  ordinance  survey  of  Sinai,  says 
of  the  Bedouins,  of  whom  some  5000  live  in  the  wilder- 
ness: "  To  call  him  a  ^son  of  the  desert'  is  a  misnomer; 
half  the  desert  owes  its  existence  to  him,  and  many  a 
fertile  plain  from  which  he  has  driven  its  useful  and 
industrious  inhabitants,  becomes  in  his  hands  like  the 
*  South  Country,'  a  parched  and  barren  w^ilderness."^ 
But  yet  in  such  an  inhospitable  region,  Palmer  saw  in 
one  place  more  than  150  milch  camels  feeding.'  He 
often  speaks  of  the  signs  of  former  cultivation  which 
he   found.*     Ebers,   the    famous    Eg^^ptologist,    wlio 

1  A  Commentary,  Ch-itical,  Experimental  and  Practical,  on  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  Philadelphia,  Vol.  I,  p.  404. 

2  Palmer,  The  Desert  of  the  Exodus,  New  York  1S72,  p.  241. 

3Ibid.  p.  274. 

4  Ibid,  pp  281,.  285,  286,  291,  293.    Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  New  York, 
1870,  pp.  23-24,  says:  "The  general  name  by  which  the  Hebrews  called  'the 


48  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

traveled  through  the  country,  believes  from  various 
indications,  such  as  the  extensive  importation  of  wood- 
coal  into  Egypt,  which  anciently  obtained,  that  at  the 
time  of  the  Exodus  the  country  could  support  exten- 
sive flocks.' 

Ingersoll  raises  the  question:  "  Where  were  these 
people  going?"  "They  were  going"  he  replies,  "to 
the  Holy  Land  .  .  .  one-fifth  the  size  of  Illinois — 
a  frightful  country,  covered  with  rocks  and  desolation. 
There  never  was  an  agent  in  Chicago  that  would  not 
have  bluslied  with  shame  to  have  described  that  land 
as  flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 

In  reply  to  such  a  remark  as  this,  I  need  merely 
mention  the  great  changes  which  are  wrought  in 
any  country  by  neglect.  The  Mormons  have  trans- 
formed a  seemingly  very  unpromising  section  into  a 
garden.     Would  it  not  be  possible  that  tlieir  domain 

wilderness,'   including  always  that  of  Sinai,  was  '  the  pasture.'    Bare  as 
the  surface  of  the  desert  is,  yet  the  thin  clothing  of  vegetation,  which  is 
seldom  entirely  withdrawn,   especially  the  aromatic  shrubs  on  the  high 
hill  sides,  furnish   sufficient  sustenance  for  the  herds  of  the  six  thousand 
Bedouins  who  constitute  the  present  population  of  the  Peninsula. 
'  Along  the  mountain  ledges  green. 
The  scattered  sheep  at  will  may  glean 
The  desert's  spicy  stores.' 
•'  So  were  they  seen  following  the  daughters  or  the  shepherd-slaves  of 
Jethro.    So  they  may  be  seen  climbing  the  rocks,   or  gathered  round  the 
pools  and  springs  of  the  valleys,  under  the  charge  of  the  blacli-veiled  Bed- 
ouin women  of  the  present  day." 

^DuTch  Gosen  zum  Sinai,  Leipzig  1S72,  pp.  233,>nd  compare  Appendix  E 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERINGS.  49 

should  relapse  into  its  primitive  unfruitf  ulness  through 
the  effect  of  war  and  ages  of  neglect? 

Whatever  the  present  appearance  of  the  land  of 
Canaan  may  be,  its  fertility,  when  the  Israelites  took 
possession  of  it,  cannot  be  doubted.  Two  causes  have 
contributed  to  its  barrenness:  (1)  The  destruction  of 
the  trees,  which  began  in  the  time  of  Shishak,  970,  E . 
C;  and  (2)  The  washing  away  of  the  terraces.'  The 
best  authorities  on  Archaeology,  such  as  De  Wette''  and 
Keil  do  not  hesitate  on  the  authority  of  Tacitus,  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus,  Josephus  and  others,  to  accept  the 
testimony  of  the  Bible  respecting  the  very  great  fer- 
tility of  the  land  of  Canaan  as  true.^  Just  here 
Inorersoll  derides  the  idea  that  God  should  have  em- 
ployed  hornets  to  drive  out  the  Canaanites,  or  that  he 
should  direct  Israel  to  kill  off  the  seven  nations  slowly, 
which,  according  to  his  arithmetic,  in  that  narrow 
domain  amounted  to  twentj^-one  millions.  AVhile 
there  is  no  reason  why  God  should  not  employ  hor- 
nets to  make  the  residence  of  the  Canaanites  un- 
comfortable, still  we  may,  perhaps,  interpret  the  expres- 
sion figuratively,  as  almost  all  modern  commentators 
are  inclined  to  do,  after  the  analogy  of  the  Greek  word 

1  Cf.  W.  H.  and  H.  B.  Tristram,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  New 
York,  1870,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  2294, 

2  Lchrhuch  der  hebrdiicfi-jiidischen  archseologie,  Leipzig,  18G4,  p.  113. 

»  See  Appendix,  F. 
4 


50  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

oistros,  which  signifies  both  a  gad- fly  and  (fnry) 
madness.^  I  prefer,  however,  to  consider  them  as 
literal  hornets.* 

The  objection  that  it  would  not  be  necessary 
to  kill  off  the  nations  gradually,  because  they  with  the 
Israelites  would  make  a  poj)ulation  of  twenty-four  mil- 
lions for  a  land  containing  only  twelve  thousand  square 
miles,  rests  upon  an  utterly  false  assumption.  (1) 
The  number  of  the  Israelites  was  nearer  two  than 
three  millions.  (2)  Although  it  is  said  that  the  seven 
nations  were  greater  and  mightier  than  Israel,  we  have 
no  right,  as  Knoble,  who  is  a  great  authority  in  such 
matters,  has  indicated,  to  suppose  that  each  nation 
was  larger  than  Israel,  but  simply  that  all  of  them  to- 
gether had  the  advantage  of  their  invaders.  (3)  The 
land,  as  originally  promised  (Gen.  xv,  18)  contained 
much  more  than  twelve  thousand  square  miles,  and 
being  covered  with  immense  forests,  and  surrounded 
by  extensive  deserts,  there  would  be  especial  danger 
of  wild  beasts,  from  which  the  country  in  the  most 
prosperous  times  was   never  free.     Dr.  Porter,  who 

1  Thus  the  wretched  lo  is   represented  in  Prometheus  Bound,  1.  566-67.  as 

shrieking: 

"Oh!  Oh! 

Again  the  gad-fly  stings  me  miserable," 
while  the  angur  Tiresias,  in  Sophocles'  Antigone,  1, 1001-2,  says; 
*'  An  unknown  sound  of  birds  I  hear 
Screaming  with  wild,  unwonted /nry." 

2  See  the  learned  dissertation  in  Bocharti  Hierozoicon,  Lipsiae,  1796,  Vol. 
iii.  pp.  402.  etc. 


ISnAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERINGS.  51 

lived  for  several  3'ears  in  the  East,  says:  "The  popu- 
lation of  that  country  [Palestine]  at  the  present  mo- 
ment is  about  two  millions,  or  about  equal  to  the 
number  of  the  Israelites  at  the  Exodus;  and  lean  tes- 
tify that  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  richest  and 
the  best  of  the  country  lies  coiyijpletely  desolateP  *  Dr. 
McCaul  has  put  the  case  very  well  when  he  says: 
"  God  promises  not  to  drive  out  the  Canaanites  in 
one  year  for  two  reasons ;  first,  lest  the  land  should 
be  desolate;  and,  second,  lest  the  beasts  of  the  field 
should  multiply  against  them.  Xow  if  the  whole 
population  of  Canaan  had  been  destroyed  in  one 
year,  which  implies  continual  fighting,  disorder, 
and  neglect  of  agricultural  pursuits,  was  there  not  a 
danger  that  the  following  year  there  would  be  no  crops? 
In  such  a  state  of  things,  in  a  country  like  Canaan, 
when  there  were  wild  beasts  in  the  land,'  and  abundance 
in  the  neighborhood — when  the  fields,  and  roads,  and 
cities  would  all  be  full  of  the  corpses  of  slain  and  un- 

iSee  The  Athcnxum,  London,  Jan.  3d,  1863,  p.  20.  Dr.  Porter's  letter,  fron\ 
which  the  quotation  is  taken,  furnishes  to  my  mind  a  complete  refutation 
of  three  of  Colenso's  objections  to  the  historical  character  of  the  Pentateuch. 

'-^ Thompson,  in  The  Land  and  tlie  Boik,  New  York,  18C.'),  who  was  for  twen- 
ty five  years  a  missionary  in  Syria  and  Palestine,  speaking  of  Samson  meet- 
ing a  lion  on  the  way  to  Timnath,  says,  vol.  ii,  p.  Sfii,  that  was  '  just  where 
one  would  expect  to  find  a  lion  in  those  days,  when  wild  beasts  were  far 
more  c  mmon  than  at  present.  Nor  is  it  more  remarkable  that  lions  should 
be  met  with  in  .such  places  than  that  fierce  leopards  should  now  maintiiin 
tlieir  position  in  the  thickly  settled  parts  of  Lebanon,  and  even  in  these 
very  mountains,  within  a  few  hundred  rods  of  large  villages.  Yet  .'-uch  I 
kuow  is  the  fact."    Compare  Dr.  Porter's  remarks  in  The  Athaixum,  Ibid. 


52  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

buried  Canaanites — there  would  be  the  greatest  possi- 
ble danger  of  the  wild  beasts  multiplying  against  the 
new  comers,  and  even  disputing  possession  with  them. 
Even  in  France,  with  its  immense  population,  wolves 
increased  during  the  revolutionary  troubles  and  con- 
fusion, from  1793  on,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  cause  se- 
rious alarm,  and  hio^h  rewards  were  offered  by  the  Na- 
tional Convention  for  their  destruction.  In  1797,  no 
less  than  5,351  wolves  were  destroyed,  and  the  alarm 
had  not  subsided  in  the  year  1800."  It  seems  to  me 
that  these  facts  show  the  utter  fallacy  of  Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  objection. 

His  profane  remark  about  God's  going  into  partner- 
ship with  snakes,  fails  to  recognize  the  fact  that  every- 
thing is  subject  to  God,  and  that  he  can  even  employ 
reptiles  to  perform  his  will.  In  the  same  breath  that 
Ingersoll  speaks  of  serpents,  he  says  that  "  the  child- 
ren of  Israel  lived  on  manna — one  account  says  all  the 
time,  and  another  only  a  little  while."  I  must  confess 
that  in  looking  at  Ex.  xvi,  14-36;  Num.  xi,  7-9;  Deut. 
viii,  3-16;  Josh,  v,  12,  I  have  failed  to  find  any  such 
disagreement  as  he  indicates.  As  to  the  peculiarities 
of  the  manna,  they  must  be  assigned  to  that  miracu- 
lous power  by  which  it  was  provided.  Undoubtedly 
the  food  became  monotonous  and  wearisome,  still  we 
have  no  right  to  assume  that  this  was  their  only  means 


of  sustenance.  Ebers  holds  that  tliey  undoubteclly 
enjoyed  the  milk  from  their  flocks,  that  they  slaugh- 
tered their  cattle  and  sheep,  and  that  they  obtained 
fish,  which  are  found  in  great  abundance  in  the  neigh- 
boring sea/  Their  diet  could  not  have  been  as  poor 
as  that  of  the  Turks  in  the  late  war.  When  Ingersoll 
says  they  knew  that  God  could  just  as  well  give  them 
three  good  meals  a  day,  he  overlooks  the  fact  that  the 
long  period  of  Israel's  wandering  was  one  of  chastise- 
ment (Dent.  viii.  2-3, 16),  and  that  all  his  dealings  with 
tliem  were  designed  to  break  their  rebellious  spirits. 
The  sickly  sentimentality  which  fits  up  handsome  cells 
for  prisoners,  feeds  them  bountifully,  and  lets  them  off 
easily  when  they  shoot  down  our  citizens,  was  not  known 
under  the  theocracy.  God  made  short  and  quick  work 
with  rebellion  and  mutiny,  as  was  absolutely  necessary 
in  dealing  with  a  multitude  of  people,  one  generation 
of  which  knew  that  they  could  never  leave  the  wilder- 
ness. (Num.  xxxii.  11-12.)  Ingersoll  follows  the 
rabbinical  interpretation  when  he  supposes  that  the 
clothes  grew  with  the  children,  but  Deut.  viii.  4,  indi- 
cates nothing  of  the  kind  :  "  Thy  raiment  waxed  not 
old  upon  thee,  neither  did  thy  foot  swell  these  forty 
years."  We  must  remember  that  the  garments  worn 
by  the  Orientals  are  flowing,  so  that  they  were  likely 

J  Compare  Appendix  E. 


54  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

to  be  much  more  durable  than  ours.  Besides,  the  chil- 
dren were  doubtless  as  destitute  of  clothing  as  those 
of  the  present  denizens  of  the  wilderness,  of  which 
Palmer  says:  "They  are  for  the  most  part  without 
clothing  of  any  kind."'  *  Then  it  must  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  this  miraculous  providence  of  God  does  not 
exclude  a  good  supply  of  clothes  to  begin  with  (Ex. 
iii,  22;  xii,  35),  and  materials  derived  from  their  flocks 
and  herds,  as  well  as  from  the  caravans  which  were 
often  passing  them. 

The  question  is  now  put :  "  Do  you  believe  the  real 
God — if  there  be  one — ever  killed  a  man  for  making 
hair  oil?"  It  is  perhaps  no  wonder  that  one  who  is 
so  profane  in  all  his  thoughts  and  expressions,  should 
not  be  able  to  see  why  God  should  j^rohibit  the  com- 
mon use  of  the  holy  anointing  oil,  which  was  a  sym- 
bol of  the  unction  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  and  of  the 
incense,  which  symbolized  prayer,  under  pain  of 
death.  Nor  can  such  a  man  appreciate  why  Gcd 
gave  directions  as  to  the  building  of  the  tabernacle, 
and  the  attire  of  the  priests,  although  none  of  these 
details  were  without  spiritual  significance.  There  is 
no  reason  why  God  should  not  tell  Moses  to  have 
curtains  made  of  tine  linen,  nor  why  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones  should  not  be  employed  in   making 

1 "  The  Desert  of  the  Exodus,  Kew  York,  1872,  p.  79. 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AND  WAXDERrXGS.  55 

the  vessels  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  ephod  of  the 
liigh  priest.  Why  should  Ingersoll  say  :  "  Did  he 
tell  them  to  make  things  of  gold,  silver  and  precious 
stones,  when  they  did  not  have  them  ? "  It  is  express- 
ly stated  that  every  Israelitish  woman  borrowed  of 
her  Egyptian  neighbor,  jewels  of  silver,  and  jewels  of 
gold,  and  raiment  (Ex.  iii,  22;  xi,  2;  xii,  35.),  not  to 
speak  of  treasures  which  probably  had  been  handed 
down,  especially  in  the  princely  family  of  Joseph,  as 
heirlooms.  In  regard  to  Ingersoll's  query:  "Is  it 
possible  that  God  told  them  not  to  eat  any  fruit  until 
after  the  fourth  year  of  planting  the  trees?"  Micha- 
elis'  remark  is  a  sufficient  answer;^  "  The  wisdom  of 
this  law  is  very  striking.  Every  gardener  will  teach 
us  not  to  let  fruit-trees  bear  in  their  earliest  years, 
but  to  pluck  off  the  blossoms;  and  for  this  reason 
they  will  thus  thrive  the  better  and  bear  more  abun- 
dantly afterwards." 

Ingersoll  ridicules  the  ceremony  employed  at  the 
consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons,  when  they  laid 
their  hands  upon  the  head  of  a  ram,  and  Moses  slew 
it,"  and  took  of  its  blood  and  put  it  upon  the  tip  of 
Aaron's  right  ear,  and  upon  the  thumb  of  his  right 
hand,  and  upon  the  great  toe  of  his  right  foot.  (Lev. 
viii,  22.)     Our  scoffer  suggests  that  we  could  not  keep 

^Bas  Musa  sche   i:cch!,  Trankfort,  A.  M.  1778,  Tart  iv.  p.  349. 


56  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

our  faces  straight  in  witnessing  sucli  a  ceremony. 
That  would  depend  upon  the  ideas  which  we  associated 
with  it.  Tlie  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which 
often  moves  a  devout  communicant  to  tears  on  account 
of  what  it  signifies,  might  merely  furnish  food  for  a 
scofier's  mirth.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  consecra- 
tion performed  by  Moses  (who  had  acquired  all  the 
grace  and  dignity  of  an  Egyptian  court)  upon  his  ven- 
erable brother,  was  one  of  great  solemnity.  The  sym- 
bolism is  certainly  beautiful,  as  indicated  by  Lange, 
when  he  says  :  "  Obedience,  as  spiritual  hearing,  is 
the  first  duty,  especially  of  the  priests.  !N^ext  the  hand, 
as  symbolizing  human  activity,  is  specially  consecra- 
ted by  being  sprinkled  wdth  blood;  finally,  the  great 
toe  of  the  right  foot,  as  symbolizing  the  walk  of  life 
in  general." 

Ingersoll,  after  speaking  of  God  as  a  juggler,  in  his 
turning  Moses'  rod  into  a  serpent,  asks:  "  Is  it  possi- 
ble that  God  worked  miracles  to  convince  Pharaoh 
that  slavery  was  wrong?"  I  answer  no;  for  Pharaoh 
was  not  open  to  any  such  conviction.  Hence  Inger- 
soll's  query:  "Why  did  he  not  tell  Pharaoh  that  any 
nation  founded  on  slavery  could  not  stand?" — which 
he  ends  with  a  rhetorical  flourish — is,  in  view  of  the 
circumstances,  ridiculous.  Pharaoh  would  have  said, 
"  I  do  not  believe  you ;  give  me  a  sign."    (Ex.  vii,  9.) 


ISRAEL'S  EXODUS  AXD  WAXDEIilXGS.  57 

This  was  the  demand  which  he  did  make,  and  which 
the  Jews  made  when  Christ  stopped  the  traffic  in  the 
temple.  "  What  sign,"  they  say,  "  showest  thou  unto  ns, 
seeing  that  thou  doest  these  things? "  (John  ii,  IS  cf. 
vi.  30.)  The  words  of  ]\Ioses  and  Aaron  could  have 
no  effect  upon  Pharaoh  unless  power  lay  behind  them. 
The  miracle  which  God  performed  in  changing  Moses' 
rod  into  a  serpent,  which  devoured  the  serpents  of  the 
Egyptian  charmers,  was  level  to  Pharaoh's  comprehen- 
sion, and  tended  to  establish  the  claims  of  Moses  and 
Aaron. 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LAWS. 

Summary:  Slavery — Divorce — The  Position  of  Woman — God's 
Victory  over  the  Egyptians — The  size  of  the  Egyptian  Stand- 
ing Army  in  the  time  of  Moses — The  Hare — Ingersoll's  Theory 
as  to  the  Origin  of  the  Ten  Commandments — Influence  of  the 
second  Commandment  on  Art — Did  God  teach  and  uphold  Po- 
lygamy?— Was  the  Extermination  of  the  Canaanites  Justifia- 
ble?— The  Hushand  of  an  Idolatrous  Wife — Captive  Maidens — 
The  Midianitish  Women — Quotation  from  Philo  —Unjust  repre- 
sentations as  to  Israelitish  Slavery — Two  kinds  of  Servitude — 
Limitations — The  Slave- wife — Foreign  Slaves — Alleged  Abuses 
— Comparison  between  Israelitish  and  Roman  Slavery — Mom- 
msen's  Remark. 

The  cliaroje  that  God  did  not  use  such  ar^riiments  as 
Ingersoll  recommends,  because  "he  believed  in  tlie 
infamy  of  slavery,"  is  either  an  infamous  falsehood  or 
an  infamous  mistake.  All  God's  commands  are  with 
reference  to  the  mitigation  of  an  institution  which  has 
existed  from  the  hoariest  antiquity.  We  shall  have 
occasion  to  speak  of  this  matter  again. 

IsTeither  can  God  be  charged  as  the  author  of  divorce. 

(58) 


ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LAWS.  59 

This  very  clearly  appears  from  what  Christ  said  to  the 
Jews  when  they  asked,  Matt,  xix,  3:  "Is  it  lawful  for 
a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for  every  cause  ? "     lie 
tells  them:    "Have  ye  not  read,  that  he  which  made 
them  at  the  beginning  made  them  male  and  female, 
and  said,  for  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife;  and  they  twain 
shall  be  one  flesh?    What  therefore  God  hath  joined 
together  let  not  man  put  asunder."     And  when  they 
asked  why  Moses  commanded  to  give  a  writing  of 
divorcement  and  put  her  away,  he  said:    "Moses,  be- 
cause of  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,  suffered  you  to 
put  away  your  wives,  but  from  the  beginning  it  was 
not  so."     It  is  an  infamous  calumnv  when  Mr.  Inirer- 
soil  says  that  [woman]  was  never  worth  mentioning 
[in  the  Bible].     Why  then  do  we  read  so  much  about 
her  that  is  tender  and  appreciative?     IIow  is  it  that 
Sarah,  Rebecca,  Kachel,  Miriam,  Deborah,  Huth,  and 
Abigail  have  become  household  words?     IIow   is  it 
that  the  bridegroom  is  not  to  go  to  war,  nor  to  be 
charged  with  any  business,  but  is  to  be  free  at  home 
for  a  year  that  he  may  cheer  his  wife?     (Deut.  xxiv.  5.) 
How  is  it  that  we  read,  Prov.  xviii.  22  :  "  Whoso  findeth 
a  wife,  findeth  a  good  thing,  and  obtaineth  favor  of 
the  Lord?"  and  at  the  very  close  of  the  book,  how  is  it 
that  we  find  that  eulogy  on  a  virtuous  woman,  which, 


60  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

as  Delitzsch  says,  praises  her  throughout  the  twenty- 
two  letters  of  the  alphabet  ?  Shame  on  the  man  who 
claims  to  have  read  the  Bible  through  once  this  year 
and  yet  affirms  that  "  There  is  not  one  word  about 
woman  in  the  Old  Testament  except  the  word  of 
shame  and  humiliation." 

Ingersoll  blasphemously  says:  "After  God  had 
killed  all  the  first-born  in  Egypt,  ....  it  could 
raise  an  army  that  could  put  to  flight  six  hundred 
thousand  men;  and  because  this  God  overwhelmed  the 
Egyi^tian  army,  he  bragged  about  it  for  a  thousand 
years,  repeatedly  calling  the  attention  of  the  Jews  to 
the  fact  that  he  overthrew  Pharoah  and  his  hosts. 
Did  he  help  much  with  their  six  hundred  thousand 
men?  We  find  by  the  records  of  the  day  that  the 
Egyptian  standing  army  was  at  that  time  never  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  men." 

But  where  are  the  passages,  in  which  God  boasts 
of  his  victory  over  the  Egyptians?  The  Israelites 
were  fond  of  celebrating  this  great  deliverance  in  song 
and  story.  Just  in  sight  of  that  grand  catastrophe 
they  sing  (Ex.  xv,  11):  "Who  is  like  unto  thee,  O 
Lord,  among  the  gods?  who  is  like  thee,  glorious  in 
holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  w^onders."  But  such 
recognitions  of  God's  power  came  from  the  popular 
heart.     I  ask,  by  what  records  of  the  day  "  we  find 


ISRAEVS  CUSTOMS  AND  LAWS.  61 

that  the  Egyptian  standing  army,  at  the  time  of  the  Ex- 
odus, was  never  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men  ?" 
According  to  Diodorus  Siculus,'  Sesostris,  or  Eamses 
II,  during  whose  reign  Moses  was  born,'  had  an  army  of 
600,000  foot,  24,000  horse,  and  27,000  chariots.  After 
much  earnest  search  in  the  latest  and  best  authorities, 
I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Ingersoll's  state- 
ment is  without  any  good  foundation.^  Aside  from 
this,  however,  it  was  not  God's  purpose  to  use  an  arm 
of  flesh  in  overcoming  the  Egyptians;  for  the  Israelites 
were  to  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord 
(Ex.  xiv.  13). 

Ingersoll  next  speaks  of  certain  matters  in  which 
the  Bible  is  not  inspired,  as  for  instance,  in  natural 
history,  and  mentions  the  hare  and  rabbit  as  animals 
which  are  said  to  chew  the  cud  but  do  not.  ITow  when 
we  remember  that  the  object  of  the  Jewish  law  was 

11,54. 

2  See  Appendix,  G. 

3  In  the  Records  of  the  Past,  London,  Vol.  ii.  p.  70,  Ramses  TI.  is  represented 
by  the  third  i:fallier  papyrus  assaying:  "I  am  amid  multitudes  unknown, 
nations  gathered  against  me  ;  lam  alone,  no  other  with  me;  my  foot  and 
horse  have  left  me  ;  I  called  aloud  to  them,  none  of  them  heard  ;  I  cried 
to  them.  I  find  Ammon  worth  more  than  millions  of  soldiers,  than  one 
hundred  thousand  cavalry,  than  ten  thousand  brothers,  striplings  [Brugsch, 
'and  sons' J,  were  they  all  gathered  together  in  one."  Compare  Brugsch 
p.  505. 

It  does  not  appear  from  this  quotation,  that  the  "  Egyptian  standing  army 
was  never  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men  ;"  Biit  even  if  Pharaoh 
had  led  only  a  few  thousand  troops  against  the  Israelites,  as  was  probably 
the  case,  they  would  have  been  amply  sutficieut  to  strike  terror  into  those 
who  had  but  just  escaped  from  bondage. 


62  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

simply  to  prohibit  the  use  of  these  animals  and  that 
it  indicates  them  by  the  tremulous  motion  of  the 
mouth,  which  the  ancients  supposed  was  caused  by 
chewing  the  cud,  we  certainly  find  no  reason  for  im- 
pugning God's  word.* 

Ingersoll  claims  that  the  Bible  is  not  inspired  in  re- 
spect to  its  law,  because  men  object  to  having  their 
goods  stolen  and  to  being  murdered.  But  does  that 
account  for  all  the  ten    commandments,  which  are 

^  Wood,  B/'6?e -4 mma's,  London,  1869,  p.  315,  says:  "  It  has  been  mentioned 
that  the  Hj-rax,  a  true  pachyderm,  does  not  merely  chew  the  cud,  but  that 
the  peculiar  and  constant  movement  of  its  jaws  strongly  resemble  the  act 
of  rumination.  The  Jews,  ignorant  as  thev  were  of  scientific  zoology, 
would  naturally  set  down  the  Hyrax  as  a  ruminant,  and  would  have  been 
likely  to  eat  it,  as  the  flesh  is  very  good.  It  must  be  remembered,  that  two 
conditions  were  needful  to  render  an  animal  fit  to  be  eaten  by  a  Jew,  the  one, 
that  it  must  be  a  ruminant,  and  the  second,  that  it  should  have  a  divided 
hoof.  Granting,  therefore,  the  presence  of  the  former  qualification,  Moses 
points  out  the  absence  of  the  latter,  thereby  prohibiting  the  animal  as  eff'ec- 
tually  as  if  he  had  entered  into  a  question  of  comparative  anatomy,  and 
proved  that  the  Hyrax  was  incapable  of  rumination. 

Dr.  Gardiner  has  also  put  the  matter  very  well  in  his  excellent  article  en- 
titled Errors  of  the  Scriptures,  in  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  Andover,  July,  1879, 
Vol.  XXXVI,  p.  503,  when  he  says  :  "  Moses  speaks  of  the  coney  (Hyrax 
Syriacus)  as  unclean,  although  he  chews  the  cud,  because  he  does  not  divide 

the  hoof  (Lev.  xi.  5),  and  so  of  some  other  animals All  this  is  wrong. 

The  coney  does  not  really  chew  the  cud,  but  merely  has  a  way  of  moving 

his  lower  jaw  which  gives  him  the  appearance  of  doing  so Now  was 

this  an  error  on  the  part  of  Moses,  and  is  it  an  error  of  the  Bible  ?  Techni- 
cally and  superficially,  of  course  it  is,  but  not  really.  Moses  himself  may 
very  likely  have  been  but  an  indifferent  comparative  anatomist ;  but  this 
cannot  be  determined  simply  from  this  use  of  language.  He  was  giving  a 
law  for  popular  observance,  and  must  necessarily  mark  his  distinctions  ac- 
cording to  appearances,  or  expose  the  people  to  be  continually  involved  in 
transgression.  It  is  of  no  consequence  at  all  what  was  the  extent  or  defi- 
ciency of  his  own  private  information.  The  exigencies  of  the  time  and 
the  circumstances  required  that  the  law  should  be  expressed  as  it  is,  and 
it  would  have  failed  of  its  purpose  had  it  been  set  forth  in  the  techni- 
calities of  modern  science." 


ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LA  WS.  63 

founded  on  perfect  love  to  God  and  our  neighbor? 
Matt.  xxii.  37-40.  He  affirms  that  the  second  com- 
mandment was  the  death  of  art  in  Palestine.  That, 
however,  is  not  the  fault  of  the  commandment,  for 
rightly  understood  it  does  not  discourage  art.  Under 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  the  cherubim  (Ex.  xxxvii. 
7-9),  tlie  brazen  serpent  (Num.  xxi.  9),  etc.,  were 
prepared.  And  we  find  similar  works  of  art  on  a 
grander  scale  in  the  temple  (1  K.  vi.  23-29;  vii.  23-37), 
and  palace  (x.  lS-20)  of  Solomon.  The  command- 
ment was  not  directed  against  the  making  of  images, 
but  against  making  them  as  objects  of  worship. 

Ingersoll  further  affirms  that  the  Bible  is  not  in- 
spired in  respect  to  morals.  After  putting  the  question : 
"  Is  there  a  man,  is  there  a  woman  here  who  believes 
in  the  institution  of  polygamy?  and  anticipating 
their  reply  "no,  we  do  not,"  he  says:  "Then  you  are 
better  tlian  your  God  was  four  thousand  A^ears  aofo. 
Four  thousand  years  ago  he  believed  in  it,  taught  it 
and  upheld  it."  Where,  I  ask,  does  he  teach  it? 
Does  Moses  say  like  Mohammed,  that  a  man  may  take 
two,  three,  or  even  four  wives? ^  No.  There  are  only* 
six  verses  in  regard  to  the  subject.  According  to 
Exodus  xxi,  9, 10,  it  is  said  that  if  a  father  take  another 
wife  for  his  son  in  addition  to  the  maid-servant  whom 

1  Sura  IV. 


64  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

he  has  betrothed  to  him,  lie  is  not  to  diminish  the 
rights  of  the  latter.  In  Lev.  xviii,  18,  it  is  prohibit- 
ed that  a  man  should  take  his  wife's  sister  during  her 
life-time.  In  Deut.  xxi,  15-17  we  read:  "If  a  man 
have  two  wives,  one  beloved  and  another  hated,  and 
they  have  borne  him  children,  both  the  beloved  and 
the  hated  (or  less  beloved) ;  and  if  the  first-born  son 
be  hers  that  was  hated,  then  it  shall  be,  when  he 
maketh  his  sons  to  inherit  that  which  he  hath,  that  he 
may  not  make  the  son  of  the  beloved  first-born  before 
the  son  of  the  hated,which  is  indeed  the  first-born,"  that 
is  we  have  the  right  of  primogeniture  established 
among  the  Hebrews.  Is  there  proof  in  those  six  verses 
that  God  believed  in  polygamy,  taught  and  upheld 
it?*  But  you  may  say  are  not  the  historical  examples 
of  polygamy  favorable  to  it?  Not  at  all.  The  Sacred 
historian  shows  the  shadows  and  unhappiness  result- 
ing from  having  a  plurality  of  wives.  On  the  other 
hand,  pictures  of  domestic  bliss  are  only  portrayed  as 
connected  with  one  wife  (Ps.  cxxviii,  3;  Fro  v.  v,  18; 
xviii,  22;  xix,  14;  xxxi,  30;  Eccl  ix,  9.) 

Ingersoll  says  he  thinks  the  Bible  is  neither  inspired 
about  religious  liberty,  nor  about  war.  I  connect  the 
two  charges,  since  the  same  principle  underlies  them 
both.     The  Israelites  were  commanded  to  wage  a  war 

iSee  Appendix!  . 


ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AXD  LAWS.  G5 

of  extermination  against  the  Canaanites.  In  their 
dealings  with  other  nations  they  were  directed  to  spare 
the  virgins  and  the  female  children.  Kow  remember 
that  this  command  occurs  in  the  Old  Testament  in 
regard  to  people  who  were  so  abominably  filthy  in 
their  practices  that  the  Scripture  says  the  land  was 
vomiting  them  ont  (Lev.  xviii,  26,  27).  If  the  Jews 
Jiad  spared  these  nations  as  the  IN'ormans  spared  the 
Saxons,  they  wonld  certainly  have  fallen  into  these 
gross  sins.  Even  Oort  says:^  "The  best  of  the 
Israelites  felt  an  aversion  for  tlie  tribes  they  had  con- 
quered and  oppressed,  which  was  not  simply  the  result 
of  national  pride  and  selfishness,  but  was  based  upon 
a  deep  moral  sense." 

When  Ingersoll  speaks  of  the  cruelty  of  a  man  turn- 
ing against  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  because  she  wished 
to  incite  him  to  idolatry,  he  fails  to  recognize  that 
under  the  divine  government,  love  and  obedience  to 
God  are  to  be  preferred  when  they  conflict  with  con- 
jugal affection.  It  was  better  that  a  man's  heart  should 
be  torn  with  anguish  by  the  loss  of  his  wife  than  that 
he  should  deny  the  God  who  had  made  him. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  most  horrible  passage  in 
Ingersoll's  address,  in  which  he  shamefully  misrej)re- 

1  The  Bible  for  Learners,  Boston,  1S7S,  vol.  ii,  p.  93. 

5 


66  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

sents  tlie  Jewish  law  in  regard  to  captive  maidens,  in- 
terpreting it  donbtless  in  the  light  of  Sepoy  and  Turk- 
ish enormities.  It  is  here  that  he  counsels  a  woman 
when  she  comes  to  this  passage,  to  throw  the  book 
from  her  in  contempt  and  scorn.  It  is  here  that  he 
says:"  That  is  the  God  we  teach  our  children  about,  so 
that  they  will  be  sweet  and  tender,  amiable  and 
kind!  That  monster — that  fiend!"  May  God  forgive 
Ingersoll's  blasphemy ! 

jN^ow,  what  are  the  facts  in  the  case?  Moses  reproves 
the  Israelites  for  saving  the  Midianitish  women  alive, 
who  had  caused  them  to  commit  fornication  in  prac- 
ticing the  licentious  rites  of  Baal-peor  (Num.  xxv,  1-3.) 
He  therefore  bids  them  kill  all  except  the  virgins  and 
the  little  girls.^  This  historical  instance  illustrates  the 
practice  of  the  Israelites.  The  statutes  in  regard  to  the 
matter  are  found  in  Deuteronomy,  xx,  14,  where  w^e 
read  that  if  a   city  refuses  to   make  peace  with   the 

1  If  the  Israelites  had  pursued  any  other  course,  they  would  have  spared 
the  very  women  who,  as  priestesses,  iu  the  obscene  worship  of  Baal-peor 
had  not  only  led  them  to  commit  carnal  but  also  spiritual  fornication,  and 
had  thus  brought  down  upon  the  children  of  Israel  terrible  judgments 
(Num.  xxv,  9).  Had  they  spared  the  male  children,  they  would  not  merely 
have  preserved  the  germs  of  the  Midianitish  nation  among  them,  but  th(  y 
would  have  incurred  the  actual  danger  that  those  same  children  on  reach- 
ing their  majority  might  have  been  their  most  dangerous  enemies  by  seek- 
ing, in  accordance  with  the  ancient  custom,  to  become  avengers  of  blood. 
On  this  latter  point,  compare  Knoble,  Die  Biichcr  Numeri,  DeiUeronnmlum 
rtnd  Josita, Leipzig,  1861,  p.  170,  and  Jamieson's  very  fuUdiscussionon  Num. 
xxxi,  48-54,  in  A  Commentary,  Critical,  Experimental  and  Prad  cat,  &c.,  Phila- 
delphia. 


ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LAWS.  07 

Israelites,  then  they  "  shall  smite  every  male  there- 
of with  the  edge  of  the  sword.  But  the  women, 
and  the  little  ones,  and  the  cattle,  and  all  that 
is  in  the  city  "  they  shall  take  unto  themselves.  As 
to  the  treatment  of  captive  women,  Deuteronom}', 
xxi,  10-1  J:,  directs  that  if  an  Israelite  sees  among  the 
captives  a  beautiful  woman  whom  he  would  have  as 
his  wife,  he  is  to  allow  her  to  mourn  a  month  for  her 
parents  before  he  consummates  the  marriage.  If 
afterwards  he  should  not  be  pleased  with  her,  he  may 
not  sell  her,  but  must  grant  her  liberty.  I  trust  that 
the  base  insinuations  which  Ingersoll  has  made  as  to 
the  treatment  of  these  captives,  will  furnish  a  suffi- 
cient apology  for  giving  Philo's  construction  of  this 
passage  in  his  chapter  on  Humanity,  where  at  the 
fourteenth  section,  he  expresses  himself  as  folows:  * 
''  Moreover,  if  after  having  taken  prisoners  in  a  sally, 
you  should  entertain  a  desire  for  a  beautiful  woman 
amongst  them,  do  not  satiate  your  passion,  treating 
her  as  a  captive,  but  act  with  gentleness,  and  pity  her 
change  of  fortune,  and  alleviate  her  calamity,  regula- 
ting everything  for  the  best."  He  further  remarks 
that  "  the  lawgiver  has  given  all  his  laws  with  great 
beauty.  For,  in  the  first  place,  he  hath  not  allowed 
appetite  to  proceed  onwards  in  its  unbridled  course, 

1  Ed.  Mangcy,  ii,  303,  scq. 


QS  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

with  stiff-necked  obstinacy,  but  he  has  checked  its  ve- 
hement impetuosity,  compelling  it  to  rest  for  thirty 
days.  And  in  the  second  place,  he  has  tested  love, 
trying  whether  it  is  a  frantic  passion,  easily  satisfied, 
and,  in  fact,  wholly  originating  in  desire,  or  whether 
it  has  any  share  in  that  most  pure  essence  of  well- 
tempered  reason,  for  reason  will  bridle  the  desire,  not 
allowing  it  to  proceed  to  any  acts  of  insolence,  but 
compelling  it  to  abide  the  appointed  period  of  a 
month  of  probation.  And,  in  the  third  place,  he 
shows  his  compassion  for  the  captive,  if  she  is  a 
virgin,  because  it  is  not  her  parents  who  are  now 
giving  her  in  marriage,  arranging  for  a  most  de- 
sirable connection."  The  subject  is  one  of  such 
delicacy  that  1  cannot  quote  facts  which  would 
go  to  show  that  the  Jewish  regulation  in  regard 
to  maidens  taken  in  war  is  far  in  advance  of  practices 
which  have  obtained  among  some  modern  nations,  not 
to  mention  those  of  antiquity.  In  view  of  these  facts, 
are  not  IngersoU's  strictures  on  the  Old  Testament  in 
regard  to  maidens,  disgraceful? 

Equally  unjust  and  impious  are  his  representations 
in  regard  to  slavery  among  the  Israelites.  There  is  a 
passage  which  may  seem  to  be  favorable  to  his  view. 
In  Lev.  XXV,  45,  we  read:  "  Moreover  of  the  children 
of  the  strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them 


ISRAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LAWS.  GO 

shall  je  buy,  and  of  their  families  that  are  with  yon, 
which  they  beget  in  the  land,  and  they  shall  be  yonr 
possession."  But  when  we  examine  all  the  passages 
which  relate  to  this  subject,  we  see  that  they  tend  to 
mitigate  an  institution  which  seems  almost  to  have 
been  a  necessity  of  that  civilization.*  The  servitude 
among  the  Hebrews  was  of  two  kinds:  (1)  That  of 
Israelites,  which  is  mentioned  in  Lev.  xxv,  39  : 
"  And  if  tliy  brother  that  dwelleth  by  thee  be 
waxen  poor,  and  be  sold  unto  thee,  thou  shalt 
not  compel  him  to  serve  as  a  bond-servant.  But 
as  a  hired  servant,  and  as  a  sojourner  he  shall 
go  with  thee,  and  shall  serve  thee  unto  the  year 
of  jubilee,  and  then  shall  he  depart  from  thee,  both 
he  and  his  children  with  him,  and  shall  return 
unto  his  own  family,  and  unto  the  possession  of  his 
fathers  shall  he  return."  Both  in  Exodus  and  Deuter- 
onomy it  is  said  that  the  servant  is  to  be  free  at  the 

1  Rev.  W.  L.  Bevan,  in  SmP.h's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  New  York,  1870,  Vol. 
iv,  p.  3057,  says :  "  Repugnant  as  the  notion  of  slavery  is  to  our  minds,  it 
is  difficult  to  see  how  it  can  be  dispensed  with  in  certain  phases  of  society, 
without,  at  all  events,  entailing  severer  evils  than  those  which  it  produces. 
.  .  .  ,  In  the  case  of  war,  carried  on  for  conquest  or  revenge,  there  were  but 
two  modes  of  dealing  with  captives,  namely,  putting  them  to  death  or  re- 
ducing them  to  slavery.  The  same  may  be  said  in  regard  to  such  acts  and 
outrages  as  disqualified  a  person  for  the  society  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
Again,  as  citizenship  involved  the  condition  of  freedom  and  independence, 
it  was  almost  necessary  to  offer  the  alternative  of  disfranchisement  to  all 
who,  through  poverty  or  any  other  contingency,  were  unable  to  support 
themselves  in  independence.  In  all  these  cases,  slavery  was  the  mildest 
of  the  alternatives  that  ollered,  and  may  hence  be  regarded  as  a  blessing 
rather  than  a  curse." 


INGEESOLL  AND  3I0SES. 


end  of  every  six  years  (Ex.  xxi:2;  Dent.  xv:12.)  un- 
less he  has  obtained  his  freedom,  by  the  year  of  jubi- 
lee intervening.  And  when  his  master  lets  him  depart 
he  is  to  furnish  him  liberally  from  his  flock,  and  from 
his  harvest  so  that  he  may  be  in  position  to  lead  an 
independent  existence  (Deut.  xv:  13-15).  In  connec- 
tion with  this  servitude,  the  master  could  give  his 
Israelitish  slave  a  wife  from  among  his  servants.  If 
he  accepted  her,  she  and  her  children  belonged  to  her 
master.  If  the  servant,  moved  by  aflfection,  shoukl 
say:  "I  love  my  master,  my  wife,  and  my  children;  I 
w^ill  not  go  free,"  then  he  was  to  remain  a  slave  for 
life  (Ex.  xxi :  5-6).  With  respect  to  this  regulation 
IngersoU  asks:  "  Do  you  believe  that  God  ever  turned 
the  dimpled  cheeks  of  little  children  into  iron  chains 
to  hold  a  man  in  slavery?  Do  you  know  that  a  God 
like  that  would  not  make  a  resjDCctable  devil?" 

I  have  merely  this  to  say,  that  the  Israelitish  ser- 
vant was  not  compelled  to  take  a  slave-wife.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  law  plainly  stated  what  the  result  of 
such  a  step  would  be.  If,  therefore,  he  accepted  such 
a  partner,  he  did  so  with  his  eyes  open.  It  might  be 
an  unfortunate  match,  as  many  are  that  young  women 
make  when  they  marry  their  father's  coachmen,  but  he 
would  have  only  himself  to  blame  for  it. 

(2.)     Another  kind  of  slavery  was  that  of  those  who 


ISIiAEL'S  CUSTOMS  AND  LA  WS.  71 

were  foreigners.  But  as  the  writer  of  an  article  in 
Smith's  Bible  Dictionary  remarks,  the  general  treat- 
ment of  slaves  appears  to  have  been  gentle' — occa- 
sionally too  gentle,  as  we  infer  from  Solomon's  warn- 
ing (Prov.  xxix,  21):  "  He  that  delicately  bringeth  np 
his  servant  from  a  child  shall  have  him  become  his  son 
at  length."  Minor  personal  injuries  were  recompensed 
by  giving  the  slave  his  freedom.  AVitli  reference  to 
the  assumption  that  a  master  might  abuse  his  slave  as 
much  as  he  pleased,  even  unto  death,  because  he  was 
his  property,  the  objection  is  well  met  by  Prof.  Bar- 
rows, who  says:'*  ''  There  is  no  ground  for  supposing 
that  the  murder  of  a  slave  with  a  deadly  weapon,  or 
the  destruction  of  his  life  in  any  other  way,  in  such 
circumstances  as  afforded  proof  of  an  intention  to  kill, 
was  not  punished  with  death.  If  the  servant  survived 
a  day  or  two,  the  master  was  not  to  be  punished.  The 
reason  added  is,  '  for  he  is  his  money.'  The  meaning 
of  these  words  is  not  that  the  master  is  to  escape  pun- 
ishment because  the  servant,  whose  death  he  has 
caused,  was  an  article  of  property,  for  the  destruction 
of  which,  punishment  was  not  required  (which  would 
be  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  context);  but  rather 
that,  being  worth  money  to  his  master,  it  is  to  be  pre- 

^  Slave,  Vol.  IV,  p.  30G0. 

^Bibliotheca  Sa  ra,  Andover,  1S62,  Vol.  XIX  p.  583. 


72  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

sumed,  in  tlie  absence  of  express  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary, that  there  was  no  intention  of  killing  him,  while 
he  suffers  a  penalty  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  loss  of 
the  servant." 

The  kind  spirit  of  the  Jewish  law  towards  all  ser- 
vants is  manifested  in  the  command  that  they  shall 
not  do  any  work  on  the  Sabbath,  and  in  the  reminder 
that  the  Israelites  themselves  were  once  servants  in 
Egypt  (Dent,  v,  15),  this  fact  is  also  called  to  their 
remembrance  when  they  are  required  to  admit  their 
slaves  to  Israel's  stated  occasions  of  festivity  and  re- 
joicing throughout  the  year  (Deut.  xvi,  12). 

It  has  been  abundantly  proved  in  the  light  of  such 
facts  that  the  system  of  Hebrew  bondage  was  much 
kinder  than  that  of  American  slavery,  regarding  which, 
Mommsen  has  made  the  follovv^ing  remark:  "It  is 
easily  possible,  that,  compared  with  Roman  slavery  ^ 
the  sum  of  all  ]^egro  sufferings  is  a  drop."  Let  it  be 
remembered  that  we  now  have  to  do  with  the  Old 
Testament;  the  principles  of  the  ]^ew,  fairly  inter- 
preted, strike  at  the  very  foundations  of  slavery.' 

1  Edmische  Geschichte,  Berlin,  1874,  Vol,  II,  p.  77.  While  the  above  state- 
ment may  be  too  strong,  the  facts  given  in  Appendix  J  show  the  surpas- 
singly brutal  nature  of  Roman  slavery. 

See  Appendix  H. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  INGERSOLL. 

Summary:  The  Atonement  Saves  the  "Wrong  Man — Changes  in 
the  Text  of  Scripture — Disagreement  of  the  Jews  as  to  the 
Limits  of  the  Canon — Greek  Translation  Prepared  Two  or  Three 
Tears  B.  C. — Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth  Interested  in  the 
Translation  of  the  Bible — Our  Indebtedness  to  Murderers  for 
our  Bibles  and  Creeds — Constantine  the  Great  the  Murderer  of 
his  Wife — One  Hundred  Thousand  Errors  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment— No  Contemporaneous  Literature  at  the  Time  the  Bible 
was  Composed — The  Bible  the  Occasion  of  Dungeons.  Kacks, 
etc. — The  Selfishness  of  the  Christian's  Heaven — A  Book  Con- 
taining the  Story  of  Elisha  and  the  Bears  Cannot  be  true — 
Answers  to  the  above,  and  Conclusion. 

Among  Ingersoll's  many  misstatements,  none  is 
greater  than  when  he  says  that  tlie  atonement  saves 
the  wrong  man.  According  to  the  Scriptures,  every 
living  soul  needs  the  atonement.  In  God's  sight 
"  there  is  none  righteous,  no  not  one  "  (Rom.  iii,  10). 
No  one,  however  lovely  traits  of  character  he  may  pos- 
sess, can  save  himself  (Rom.  iii,  20).  But  this  right- 
eousness  of  Christ,  which   every  soul   may   receive 

(73) 


74  INGEESOLL  AND  MOSES. 

through  repentance  and  faith,  is  not  favorable  to  anti- 
nomianism.  Paul  indignantly  repels  that  heresy  when 
he  says  (Rom.  vi,  1-2):  ''Shall  we  continue  in  sin 
that  grace  may  abound?  God  forbid.  How  shall  we, 
that  are  dead  to  sin,  live  any  longer  therein?"  Hence 
according  to  the  Christian  scheme,  there  can  be  no  jus- 
tification, unless  it  is  attended  by  sanctification. 

What  Ingersoll  says  about  the  changes  which  took 
place  in  the  text  of  the  Scriptures  before  the  Bible  was 
printed,  is  ignorant  nonsense.  Scrivener  remarks;^ 
"  But  even  were  the  progress  of  the  science  [of  textual 
criticism]  less  hopeful  than  we  believe  it  to  be,  one 
great  truth  is  admitted  on  all  hands — the  almost  com- 
plete freedom  of  Holy  Scripture  from  the  bare  sus- 
picion of  willful  corruption ;  the  absolute  identity  of 
the  testimony  of  every  known  copy  in  respect  to  doc- 
trine and  spirit,  and  the  main  drift  of  every  argument 
and  every  narrative  through  the  entire  volume  of  in- 
spiration. On  a  point  of  such  vital  moment,  I  am  glad 
to  cite  the  well-known  and  powerful  statement  of  the 
great  Bentley,  at  once  the  profoundest  and.  the  most 
daring  of  Eno-lish  critics:  "  The  real  text  of  the  sacred 
writers  does  not  now  (since  the  originals  have  been  so 
long  lost)  lie  in  any  manuscript  or  edition,  but  is  dis- 
persed in  them  all.     'Tis  competently  exact,  indeed, 

1 A  Plain  Introduction  to  The  Criticism  of  the  Nciv  Testament,  Cambridge, 
1874,  pp.  6-7. 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  IXGERSOLL.     75 

in  the  worst  manuscript  now  extant;  nor  is  one  article 
of  faith  or  moral  precept  either  perverted  or  lost  in 
them;  choose  as  awkwardly  as  you  will,  choose  the 
worst  by  design  out  of  the  whole  lump  of  readings ; 
.  .  .  .  make  your  thirty  thousand  variations  as 
many  more,  if  numbers  of  copies  can  ever  reach  that 
sum :  all  the  better  to  a  knowing  and  a  serious  reader, 
who  is  thereby  more  richly  furnished  to  select  what 
he  sees  genuine.  But  even  put  them  into  the  hands 
of  a  knave  or  a  fool,  and  yet  with  the  most  sinistrous 
and  absurd  choice,  he  shall  not  extinguish  the  light 
of  any  one  chapter,  nor  so  disguise  Christianity,  but 
that  every  feature  of  it  will  still  be  the  same." 

Ingersoll  said  to  his  auditors,  who  perhaps  won- 
dered at  his  learning:  ''  I  want  you  to  know  that  the 
Jews  themselves  never  agreed  as  to  what  books  were 
inspired,  and  that  there  were  a  lot  of  books  written 
that  were  not  incorporated  in  the  Old  Testament." 
"We  have  in  the  Prologue  of  the  book  of  Sirach,  writ- 
ten one  hundred  and  thirty-two  years  ^  before  Christ, 
an  allusion  to  the  three  great  divisions  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  are  termed  the  Law,  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Sacred  Writings. 

There  can  be  but  little  doubt,  although  there  is 
not  data  enough  to  argue  with  certainty ,""  that  these 

1  Fritzsche,  Libri  Apochnjphi  Vderis  Tcstamenti  Grocce,  Lipsix,  1S71,  p.  xxii. 
aFurst,  Der  Kanon  des  Alien  TesUnne.^ls,  Leipzig,  1SC8,  p.  C5,  (56)  has  made  a 


76  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

three  divisions  contained  tlie  thirty-nine  books  which 
are  enumerated  by  the  Jews  as  twenty-two,  and  are 
mentioned  by  Josephus  in  a  famous  passage*/  "For 
we  have  not  an  innumerable  multitude  of  books 
among  us,  disagreeing  from,  and  contradicting  one 
another,  but  only  twenty-two  books."  The  same 
number  of  books  is  mentioned  in  a  celebrated  passage 
of  a  treatise  in  the  Talmud,  called  Baha  hathra'^ 
Jerome,  who  had  a  Jewish  teacher,  also  mentions  that 
there  were  twenty-two  books,  or  twenty -four  reckoned 
by  the  Jews  in  the  Old  Testament,^  according  as  Euth 
and  Lamentations,  were  numbered  separately,  or  added 
to  Judges  and  Jeremiah.   "With  reference  to  the  apoc- 

remark  which  is  worthy  of  attention.  In  reply  to  the  question,  "  At  what 
time  was  the  last  division  (the  Hagiographa) gathered  and  put  in  order?" 
he  says :  "  The  admirable  book  of  Jesus  Sirach,  composed  180  B.  C,  in  spite 
of  its  excellence  as  a  book  for  the  people,  and  although  it  was  written  in 
Hebrew,  could  find  no  place  in  the  collection  of  the  Kethubim  (the  Hagio- 
grapha), which,  when  we  regard  the  almost  canonical  estimation  in  which 
this  book  was  held,  could  only  occur  because  the  Kethubim  (the  last  divis- 
ion of  the  canon)  was  already  closed  and  completed." 

It  is  certain,  on  the  basis  of  the  most  unbiased  criticism,  that  the  Old  Tes- 
tament canon  was  closed  towards  the  end  of  the  first  century  A.  D.  (Bleek, 
Einleitung  in  das  Alte  Testament,  Berlin,  1878,  p.  550),  and  it  is  very  probable 
that  it  was  completed  three  hundred  years  before.  (Fiirst  Jbid.,  p.  57 :  "  So 
dass  man  mit  Bestimentheit  annehmen  kann,  dass  um  200  v.  Chr.  die  Ke- 
tubim  bereits  redigirt  waren.") 

1  Contra  Apion,  i,  8. 

2  14b. 

3  Jerome,  in  the  Prologus  Galeaius,  says :  "  Atque  ita  fiunt  pariter  veteris 
legis  libri  vigiutiduo ;  id  est,  Moysi  quinque,  Prophetarum  octo,  Hagiogra- 
poriim  novem.  Quamquam  nonnulli  Ruth  et  Cinoth  [Lamentationes],  in- 
ter Hagiographa  scriptitent,  et  hos  libros  in  suo  putent  uumero  supputan- 
dos,  ac  per  hoc  esse  priscse  legis  libros  vigintiquatuor." 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  INGEliSOLL.     77 

ryplia  to  wliich  Ingersoll  alludes,  altliougli  it  was  cur- 
rent among  the  Alexandrian  Jews  in  the  Greek,  yet  it 
is  not  quoted  by  Philo,  who  often  refers  to  the  Old 
Testament  as  Scripture.  In  tlie  Talmud  it  is  writ- 
ten: "He  who  brings  into  his  house  more  than 
twenty-four  books  of  the  canon,  brings  a  destruction 
into  his  house."  i^  nd  in  the  Mishna  it  is  recorded: 
"  He  who  reads  books  that  must  be  kept  separate  from 
the  canonical  ones,  forfeits  eternal  life."  ^ 

Ino^ersoll  wants  we  should  know  that  the  Hebrew 
MS.  was  translated  into  Greek  two  or  three  years  be- 
fore Christ.  He  undoubtedly  refers  to  the  Septuagint 
which  was  prepared,  according  to  the  best  authorities, 
between  285  and  150  B.  C  The  date  which  he  gives 
is  a  disgraceful  blander.  While  it  is  true  that  per- 
haps no  manuscripts  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  have 
yet  been  discovered,  extending  back  beyond  916  A.  D.,^ 

1  Biesenthal,  in  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  Andover,  1875,  pp.  163-1 G4. 

2  Fritsche  in  Herzog's  and  Plitt's  Real  EncyUopddie,  Leipzig,  1877,  p.  282, 
says:  "  Everything  goes  to  show  that  at  first  considerable  portions  of  the 
Old  Testament  were  translated  under  the  Ptolemies,  especially  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus  (285-247 B.C.);  afterwards  translations  of  the  rest  of  the  Scrip- 
lures  were  gradually  prepared,  and  shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  before  Christ,  no  Scripture  remained  untranslated."  Compare 
Bleek,  Einleitung  in  das  Alte  Testament,  Berlin,  1878,  p.  571. 

sSeeHarkavy  and  Strack,  Catalog  der  Eebrdischen  Bibelhandscrijten  der 
Kaiserlichen  OejjenUihch.cn  Bibliothek  in  iSt. Petersburg,  St.  Petersburg,  1875,  p.  223. 
Schiller-it zinessy  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  Hebrew  J/SS.  preserved  in  the  Univer- 
fity  Library,  (ambridge,  1876,  p.  14,  claims,  that  the  date  of  No.  12,  given 
in  the  postscript,  the  7  of  Adar  616  (Feb.  18,  856  A.  D.),  is  correct,  hence  this 
would  be  the  oldest  0.  T.  manuscript.    The  comparatively  recent  age  of  our 


78  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

yet  it  does  not  disprove  the  substantial  accuracy  of 
our  present  Hebrew  manuscripts  concerning  wliicli 
Dr.  Biesenthal,  an  eminent  Kabbinical  scholar,  makes 
the  following  remark  :  ^  "  The  Jews  were  not  at  all 
times  faithful  keepers  of  the  spirit  and  substance, 
but  they  surely  were  more  than  any  other  nation,  the 
guardians   and   preservers  of  the  word  of  the   Old 

Testament Countless  precepts  threaten 

the  woes  of  hell  to  the  copyist  of  the  scriptures  of 
the  Old  Testament,  if  he  should  dare  to  add  or  leave 
out  a  syllable." 

"We  pass  from  one  succession  of  Ingersoll's  blunders 
or  misrepresentations  to  another.  What  can  be  more 
absurd  in  the  light  of  history  than  the  statement  that 
Henry  YIII.  took  a  little  time  between  murdering  his 
wives  to  see  that  the  Word  of  God  was  translated  cor- 
rectly?"     The  fact  is  that  Tyndale,  who  translated  the 

oldest  Hebrew  manuscripts  does  not  militate  against  their  authority.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  "  we  have  no  complete  copy  of  Homer  himself 
prior  to  the  thirteenth  century."   (Scrivener's  Introduction,  p.  4.). 

1  Bibliotfieca  Sacra,  Andover,  1865,  p.  162.  The  exactness  which  the  Jews 
observed  in  their  preparation  of  Pentateuch  rolls  is  indicated  in  Home's 
Introduction,  London,  1869,  vol.  ii.  p.  41 :  "  The  want  of  a  single  letter,  or 
the  redundance  of  a  single  letter,  the  writing  of  prose  as  verse,  or  verse  as 
prose,  respectively,  vitiates  a  manuscript ;  and  when  a  copy  has  been  com- 
pleted, it  must  be  examined  and  corrected  within  thirty  days  after  the 
writing  has  been  finished,  in  order  to  determine  whether  it  is  to  be  ap- 
proved or  rejected." 

Carpzovii,  Oritica  Sacra,  Lipsise,  1718,  p.  372,  says :  "  Maimondes  mentions 
twenty  faults,  a  single  one  of  which  profanes  or  renders  the  whole  volume 
useless." 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  IXGEIiSOLL.      79 

Bible,  was  put  to  death  under  Henry  in  the  year  153G/ 
and  that  Miles  Coverdale,  Tyndale's  friend,  as  a  piece 
of  good  policy,  dedicated  his  version  to  Henry.'  I 
need  not  say  that  the  statement  tliat  "  Elizabeth,  the 
murderess  of  Mary,  Queen  ot  Scotts,  got  up  another 
edition,  which  also  did  not  suit,"  is  false.  The  Gene- 
van Bible,  which  received  its  name  from  the  place 
where  it  was  prepared,  was  dedicated  to  Queen  Eliza- 
beth for  the  sake  of  her  patronage,  but  she  had  noth- 
ino^  to  do  in  brino^ins:  about  its  translation  or  that  of 
the  Bishop's  Bible.' 

"What  does  Incrersoll  mean  when  in  the  same  connec- 
tion  he  says:  "  You  must  recollect  that  we  are  indebt- 
ed to  murderers  for  our  Bibles  and  creeds? "  This  is 
a  statement  which  every  well-informed  person  knows 
to  be  false  on  its  very  face,  but  there  are  very  many 
who  have  not  the  ready  knowledge  to  nail  it  at  once 

'  Anne  Bolcyn  was  favorable  to  Tyndale,  and  in  recognition  of  her  tind 
intervention  for  liim,  he  presented  her  with  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament 
bound  in  vellum  and  beautifully  illuminated.  (Westcctt,  A  General  View 
of  the  Hutory  of  the  English  Bible,  London,  1872,  p.  49).  His  last  prayer  was: 
"Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's  eyes."    {Ibid.,  p.  51.) 

2  Westcott,  Jbid.,  p.  61,  says  :  "  His  [Coverdale's]  object  was  to  bring  about 
the  open  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  and  that  could  only  be  by  securing 
the  king's  favor.    To  this  end  the  work  w'as  dedicated  to  Henry  VIIL 

^Ibid.,  p.  92.  In  regard  to  the  Bishop's  Bible,  Westcott  remarks  (p.  108): 
"When  the  edition  was  ready  for  publication,  Parker  endeavored  to  obtain 
through  Cecil,  a  recognition  of  it  by  the  Queen.  .  .  .  There  is  no  evidence 
to  show  whether  the  Queen  returned  any  answer  to  his  petition."  Although 
the  circulation  of  the  Bible  was  secured,  her  attitude  towards  the  movement 
was  evidently  rather  that  of  concession  than  of  hearty  patronage. 


80  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

as  a  lie.  Without  respect  to  the  subject  matter  treated, 
it  is  scandalous  that  a  professedly  well  educated  man 
should  make  such  mistakes,  which  reference  to  any 
good  encyclopaedia  would  prevent. 

We  have  seen  how  false  the  assertions  were,  that 
Henry  YIII.  or  Elizabeth  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures.  Ingersoll  charges  that 
"  Constantine,  w^ho  helped  on  the  good  work  in  its 
early  stages,  murdered  his  wife  and  child."  This  accu- 
sation is  substantially  true  with  respect  to  his  son,  and 
it  is  a  dark  stain  on  Constantine's  memory.'  It  is  also 
true  that  he  bade  Eusebius  of  Cgesarea  have  fifty  copies 
of  the  Scriptures  written  on  prepared  skins  by  skilled 
scribes,"^  and  that  he   w^as  prominent  in  securing  the 

iProf.  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Chicrch,  New  York,  1870,  Vol.  ii,  pp.  15- 
17,  indicates  the  lights  as  Avell  as  the  shadows  of  Constantiue's  character. 
"  His  moral  character  was  not  without  noble  traits,  among  which  a  chastity 
rare  for  the  time,  and  a  liberality  and  beneficence  bordering  on  wasiefalness 
were  prominent.  Many  of  his  laws  and  regulations  breathed  the  spirit  of 
Chrisiian  justice  and  humanity,  promoted  the  elevation  of  the  female  sex, 
improved  the  condition  of  slaves  and  of  iinfortunates,  and  gave  free  play  to 
the  efficiency  of  the  church  throughout  the  whole  empire.  Altogether,  he 
was  one  of  the  best,  the  most  fortunate,  and  the  most  influential  of  the 
Koman  emperors.  Christian  and  pagan. 

[But]  the  very  brightest  period  of  his  reign  is  stained  with  gross  crimes, 
which  even  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  the  policy  of  an  absolute  monarch,  can- 
not excuse Worst  of  all  is  the  murder  of  his  eldest  son,  Crispus,  in  326, 

who  had  incurred  suspicion  of  political  conspiracy  and  of  adulterous  and  in- 
cestuous purposes  towards  his  step-mother,  Fausta,  but  is  generally  regarded 
as  innocent. . .  He  hasbeen  frequently  charged.  besides,though  it  would  .seem 
altogether  unjustly,  with  the  death  of  his  second  wife. .  .  The  accounts  of  the 
cause  and  manner  of  her  death  are  so  late  and  discordant  as  to  make  Con- 
stantine's part  in  it  at  least  very  doubtful." 

2  Wescott.  A  General.  Survey  of  tlie  History  of  the  Canon,  London,  1875,  p.  422. 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  INGEIiSOLL,      81 

meeting  of  the  ecumenical  council  at  Nicaea,  in 
the  year  325,  at  which  he  presided,  and  where  the 
[N'icene  Creed  was  prepared.  But  it  is  not  true, 
as  IngersoU  would  have  us  infer,  that  we  are  in- 
debted to  him  for  those  copies  of  the  Biljle,  and  for 
that  creed  because  he  had  put  his  son  to  death.  Xo, 
the  first  statesman  of  his  time,  he  recognized  the 
growing  power  of  Christianity  before  which  heathen- 
ism must  fall,  he  therefore,  at  first,  protected  it  as  a 
political  measure.^  Having  done  this  he  perceived  that 
it  was  desirable  in  a  state  religion  that  there  should  be 
uniformity.*  As  the  church  was  divided  into  the  or- 
thodox party  and  the  Arians,  and  the  strife  threatened 
to  be  dangerous  politically,  he  called  the  council  at 
l^icaea,  in  order  that  harmony  in  doctrine  might  be 
secured.  How  little  he  cared  for  the  distinction  which 
divided  the  two  parties,  appears  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  at  first  in  favor  of  a  sjmibol,  which,  failing  to 
assert  the  deity  of  Christ,  was  agreeable  to  the  Arians, 
but  afterwards,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  gave  his  voice  for 
the  orthodox  creed."  JSTow,  in  view  of  these  facts,  how 
shameless  and  ignorant  the  charge  that  w^e  are  indebt- 
ed to  murderers  for  our  Bibles  and  creeds! 

The  assertion  that  there  are  at  least  one  hundred 

1  Compare  Schaflf,  Vol.  ii,  p.  13. 

2  Ibid.  p.  fi21. 

3  Schaff,  Vol.  ii,  p.  628. 

6 


82  INGERSOLL  AND  MOSES. 

thousand  errors  in  tlie  Old  Testament,  is  doubtless  a 
despicable  falsehood/  and  the  statement  that  hereafter 
the  prophet  will  be  fed  bj  Arabs  instead  of  ravens,'^ 
and  that  Samson's  three  hundred  foxes  will  be  three 
hundred  sheaves,  is  utterly  without  foundation. 

Ingersoll  wishes  us  to  know  that  there  was  no  con- 
temporaneous literature  at  the  time  the  Bible  was 
com]30sed.  Unfortunately  for  him,  there  are  several 
Egyptian  papyrus  rolls  in  existence,  which  date  back 
even  earlier  than  the  time  of  Moses.  Dr.  Heinrich 
Brugsch-Bey  says,^  after  giving  a  quotation  from  a 
certain  roll:  ''  We  may  presuppose  that  many  a  He- 
brew, perhaps  Moses  himself,  encountered  the  Egyp- 
tian scribe  as  he  was  wandering  through  the  streets 
of  the  temple-city  [Ramses]  as  they  were  adorned 
for  the  festival."  What  then  was  to  hinder  him  who 
was  skilled  in  all  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians,  as  the 

1  Prof.  Green,  of  the  Old  Testament  Conjipany  of  American  Revisers.writes 
as  follows:  "Ingersoll's  gross  misrepresentation  of  the  number  of  mis- 
takes in  the  authorized  version,  is  of  course  absurd  enough  and  easily  set 
aside,  as  both  ignorant  and  malicious.  I  am  sorry  that  1  have  not  statis- 
tics at  hand  with  which  to  supply  you.  I  have  preserved  no  record  of 
the  number  of  deviations  from  the  original  which  affect  the  sense.  The 
more  carefully  I  study  our  version,  the  more  I  am  impressed  with  its  great 
excellence.  It  would  be  very  hard,  I  think,  for  Ingersoll  or  any  one  else 
to  show  that  the  faith  of  Christendom  would  be  altered  in  any  particular 
if  there  had  been  no  blemish  whatever  in  our  version,  but  it  had  accu- 
rately represented  the  originals  in  eveiy  word  and  sentence." 

2  This  is  a  rationalistic  interpretation,  which  was  exploded  long  ago. 
^Geschichte  jEgyptens  unter  den  Pharaonen,  Leipzig  1S77,  p.  549. 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  IXGERSOLL.       83 

reputed  son  of  Pliaraolrs  daughter,  from  being  an 
adept  in  the  art  of  writing?  * 

The  affirmation  that  the  Jews  were  infinitely  iornor- 
ant  in  their  day  and  generation  is  a  mere  assertion, 
while  the  declaration  that  they  were  isolated  by  bigotry 
and  wickedness  from  the  rest  of  the  world  is  a  scur- 
rilous falsehood.  The  nations  that  surrounded  them 
were  far  more  wicked  than  they. 

It  does  not  seem  possible  that  any  American  of  ordi- 
narj^  intelligence  and  in  his  right  mind  could  say:  "  I 
want  you  to  understand  that  where  this  Bible  has  been, 
naan  has  hated  his  brother — there  have  been  dungeons, 
racks,  thumb-screws  and  the  sword." "     I  pity  the  man 

1  Brugsch.  Ibifl..  p.  500,  after  giving  a  quotation  from  an  Egyptian  poet, 
says:  "At  all  events,  the  peculiar  order  of  tliought  of  the  Egyptian  poet 
in  the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ,  shines  out  in  its  entire  fullness  and 
confirms  our  opinion,  that  the  Mosaic  laiijUage  ixhibi  s  iti-elf  as  a  conUmporary 
image  of  the  Egyptian  manner  of  speech."    The  Italics  are  my  own. 

-  There  is  only  one  sense  in  which  this  statement  can  be  true,  and  that 
is  that  the  Bible,  in  arousing  the  antagonism  of  bad  men  and  corrupt  sys- 
tems, has  often  made  those  who  believed  in  its  truths  martyrs.  But,  while 
it  must  be  admitted  that  there  have  been  sporadic  cases  of  persecution  owing 
to  superstition  and  a  misinterpretation  of  the  Bible,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
so-called  Salem  witches  (Upham,  Salem  Witchcvaft,  Boston,  18G7,  vols,  i  and 
ii),  it  is  not  true  that  the  spirit  of  the  Scriptures  makes  men  persecutors  of 
others.  There  has  been  no  power  more  intolerant  than  that  of  Popery, 
which  forbids  the  masses  freely  to  read  the  Word  of  God  {The  Protestant, 
Hartford,  1836,  vol.  ii,  pp.  352-53),  and  it  is  in  this  very  sj-stem  that  the  In- 
quisition, with  all  its  horrors,  originated.  "  In  Spain  alone,  according  to 
Llorente,  upwards  of  three  hundred  and  forty  thousand  persons  were  judged 
and  punished  one  way  or  another  by  the  tribunal.  Of  these  nearly  thirty- 
two  thousand  were  burned  alive"  Encyclopxdia  B  it'anica,  Boston.  18-56, 
vol.  xii.  p.  301).  Compare  Llorente's  Kritische  Geschichte  der  Spani^chen  In- 
quisition, Gmund,  1819,  Fox,  Boo/c  of  Maityrs,  etc.  etc. 


84  INGEESOLL  AND  MOSES. 

that  can  credit  siicli  a  statement.  I  can  scarcely  think 
that  Ingersoll  hinu  elf  believes  that  that  book  which 
bids  lis  break  every  yoke,  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free; 
which  in  the  teachings  of  Christ  breathes  such  love, 
could  have  such  an  effect.  This  assertion  rests  on 
just  such  a  perversion  of  history  as  we  have  already 
remarked.  Oh !  it  makes  one's  blood  boil  to  hear  such 
statements  repeated  before  audiences  that  lay  claim  to 
some  refinement  and  intelligence.  It  makes  one's 
cheek  mantle  with  shame  to  think  such  a  statement 
could  be  taken  for  sober  truth.  Every  intelligent  per- 
son knows  that  those  instruments  of  torture  abounded 
most  when  it  was  considered  a  crime  to  read  the  Bible- 
Shame  on  the  man  who  can  invent  such  a  story! 

Ingersoll,  when  he  speaks  of  the  selfishness  of  the 
Christian  heaven,  forgets  that  Christ  came  with  infinite 
love  to  open  the  doors  of  heaven  to  all  who  believe 
on  him,  and  that  the  Apostle  Paul  said  (Rom.  ix,  3): 
"  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ 
for  my  brethern,  my  kinsman,  according  to  the  flesh." 
Let  the  graves  of  the  missionaries  off  the  west  coast 
of  Africa  testify  whether  Christians  who  are  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Scriptures  care  nothing  for  the 
salvation  of  their  fellow  men. 

Ingersoll  professes  not  to  believe  in  the  Bible  on  ac- 
count of  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  story  of  the  bears. 


VABIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  IXGEIiSOLL.       85 

who  came  out  and  tore  the  children  who  mocked  Elisha 
(2  Kings,  ii,  23-24).  The  story  is  a  brief  one.  It  is 
the  only  vindictive  miracle  which  was  wrought  through 
the  agency  of  a  peculiarly  tender-hearted  prophet. 
Ingersoll  has  pictured  the  frantic  grief  of  the  mothers 
at  finding  their  darlings  torn  by  the  wild  beasts.  But 
tliere  is  another  side  to  this  scene.  A  party  of  street 
Arabs  who  have  often  heard  their  idolatrous  parents  re- 
vile the  prophet,  and  who  are  the  very  embodiment  of 
their  hatred,  dog  his  footsteps  and  mock  him  as  the  rep- 
I'esentative  of  Jehovah.  AYith  prophetic  instinct  of 
their  destruction  from  the  Lord  he  pronounces  the  curse 
which  is  the  forerunner  of  the  punishment  falling  up- 
on them  and  their  parents. 

It  is  a  sad  picture,  but  perhaps  not  more  sad  than 
that  of  little  children  who  carry  the  sins  of  their 
pxrents,  in  scarred  faces  and  aching  limbs  till  they 
stumble  into  the  grave. 

The  misery  in  this  world  is  a  mystery  which  the 
Scriptures  explain  as  the  result  of  sin.  Jesus  comes 
with  infinite  love  to  bear  the  load  of  our  transgres- 
sions, to  open  wide  the  gates  of  heaven  to  all  who  will 
accept  him.  He  has  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives, 
but  to  save  them.  His  dvino^  accents  on  the  cross  re- 
specting  his  murderers  were,  "  Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."     lie  has  gone  to  pre- 


86  INGEESOLL  AND  MOSES. 

pare  a  place  for  his  people,  where  there  will  be  no 
more  sorrow,  nor  crying,  where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling  and  the  weary  are  at  rest. 

It  is  against  this  gospel,  whose  very  breath  is  love, 
which  simply  tells  men  of  their  disease,  that  it  may 
apply  the  remedy,  which  merely  points  out  the  dan- 
ger that  it  may  provide  a  refuge,  that  Ingersoll  is 
arrayed,  and  which  he  wishes  to  banish  from  the  earth. 
And  what  does  he  give  us  in  its  place?  He  virtually 
says  to  the  sensualist:  "Make  the  most  of  this  life; 
you  have  no  assurance  that  there  is  any  hereafter." 
He  comes  to  the  mother,  whose  heart  is  breaking  over 
the  loss  of  a  beloved  babe,  into  whose  soul  dull  de- 
spair has  not  yet  entered,  because  she  has  heard  the 
voice  of  Him  who  has  said :  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life,"  and  tells  her  that  her  hope  is  an  idle  dream. 

He  comes  to  those  who  are  often  in  prayer,  who 
mourn  over  sin,  who  are  struggling  and  crying  for  a 
purer  and  better  life,  like  that  of  Jesus,  and  tells  them 
religion  is  a  sham. 

He  comes  to  the  youth  who  stands  on  the  threshold 
of  life,  with  sweet  persuasion,  like  an  angel  of  light, 
and  tells  him  that  a  mother's  faith  and  a  mother's  pray- 
ers are  a  weak  superstition,  and  bids  him  go  forth  to 
meet  the  tremendous  battle  of  life,  shorn  of  that  faith 
in  God  which  makes  men  heroes  and  women  sublime. 


VARIOUS  MISSTATEMENTS  BY  INGERSOLL.       87 

AVlien  Christianity  is  banislied  from  the  earth,  when 
darkness  falls  upon  the  nations,  when  hospitals  are 
razed  to  their  foundations,  tlie  old  and  weak  are  ex- 
posed to  the  fury  of  the  elements  by  their  unnatural 
relatives,  and  lust  and  murder  hold  high  carnival,  then 
let  Byron's  dream  be  realized:  let  the  bright  sun  be 
extinguished,  the  stars  wander  darkling  in  the  eternal 
space,  rayless  and  pathless,  and  the  icy  earth  swing, 
blind  and  blackening,  in  the  moonless  air. 

But  that  day  wdll  never  come.  Scoffers  and  heathen 
from  Porphyry  and  Julian  down,  have  entered  this 
contest  only  to  experience  inglorious  defeat. 

History  repeats  itself.  About  one  hundred  years  ago 
Thomas  Paine  arrayed  himself  against  Christianity,' 
and  now  Kobert  Ingersoll  is  treading  in  his  footsteps. 
Paine  could  not  crush  Christianty,  nor  can  Ingersoll. 
It  possesses,  from  its  Founder,  a  divine  energy.  "  Who- 
soever falleth  on  this  stone  shall  be  broken,  but  on 
whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  itVill  grind  him  to  powder." 

1  TM  Age  of  Reason,  Paris,  179  i. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX    A. 

THE  APPOINTMENT  OF  LUMINARIES. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  Rashi,  who  died  1105,  and  conse- 
quently knew  nothing  of  modem  scientific  theories,  in  his  comment 
on  Gen.  i.  14,  maintains  tliat  the  sun  and  moon  were  created  on 
the  first  day  (they  Ijeing  included  in  the  account  of  the  creation  of 
the  heavens),  although  they  were  not  set  apart  to  their  distinctive 
work  until  the  fourth  day.  Similarly,  Dawson  says:  *  "The  lumi- 
naries [light-bearers]  were  made  or  appointed  to  their  office  on  the 
fourth  day.  They  are  not  said  to  have  been  created,  being  inclu- 
ded in  the  creation  of  the  beginning;  they  were  now  completed, 
and  fully  fitted  for  their  work.  An  important  part  of  this  fitting 
seems  to  have  been  the  setting  or  placing  them  in  the  heavens, 
conveying  to  us  the  impression  that  the  mutual  relations  and  reg- 
ular motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  were  now  for  the  first  time 
perfected." 

1  The  Origin  of  the  World,  New  York,  1S77,  p.  201. 

(91) 


92  APPENDIX  A. 


I  am  aware  that  when  I  a?=sert  that  the  original  does  not  indi- 
cate the  creation  of  the  luminaries  on  the  fourth  day,  I  am  in  an- 
tagonism to  Prof.  Delitzsch,  who  remarks;*  "The  opinion  that 
the  heavenly  bodies  were  not  created  on  the  fourth  day,  but  were 
only  brought  into  a  definite  relation  to  the  earth,  is  contrary  to  the 
terms  of  the  narrative."  Dillmann  is  of  the  same  opinion,'  and 
says  that  the  entire  representation,  while  fitted  to  convey  divine 
truth,  is  from  the  ancient  childlike  view  of  the  world  as  the  centre 
of  the  universe.  I  am  confident,  however,  with  all  deference  to 
these  eminent  authorities,  that  we  have  not  to  do  with  a  creation 
of  certain  celestial  bodies,  but  with  their  inauguration  to  specific 
duties.  The  sun  and  moon  became  meoroth  (bearers  of  hght)  per- 
haps by  the  gift  of  a  luminous  atmosphere  to  the  former.  In  ver. 
16,  the  word  which  is  translated  made  could  be  rendered  constitu- 
ted, appointed,  so  that  we  can  read  with  perfect  propriety:  "And 
God  appointed  two  great  lights."  Compare  1  Kings,  xii.  31 : 
"And  he  made  (appointed)  priests."  2  Kings,  xxi.  6:  "And  he 
made  (appointed)  necromancers  and  sorcerers."  After  a  compar- 
ison with  such  passages,  there  seems  to  be  no  violence  in  the  in- 
terpretation suggested.  The  creation  of  light  on  the  first  day,  and 
the  establishment  of  luminaries  on  the  fourth,  instead  of  being  a 
sign  of  ignorance,  is,  as  Dana  has  well  observed,  an  indication  of 
divine  wisdom.' 

1  Commentar  iiber  die  Genesis,  Leipzig,  1872,  p.  94. 

2  Die  Genesis,  Leipzig,  1875,  pp.  30-31. 

3  Manual  of  Geology,  New  York,  1876.  p.  767. 


APPENDIX  B.  93 


APPENDIX     B. 

*♦  THE  SONS  OF  GOD." 

Gen.  vi,  2. 

Three  interpretations  have  been  given  of  this  difficult  passage  : 
(1.)  That  of  the  Jews,  who  maintained  that  the  bene  Elohim  [Sons 
of  God)  indicate  men  of  high  rank,  and  that  the  henoth  hacidam 
{daughters  of  men)  were  women  of  plebeian  origin.  We  have  no 
evidence,  however,  that  the  hene  Elohim  and  the  hene  haadam  are 
ever  contrasted  in  this  way.  Ps.  xlix,  2  (Hebr.  3),  makes  a  con- 
trast between  ish^  vir  and  adam,  homo:  '*  Both  low  [betie  adam) 
and  high  {Jbene  ish.)  "  Besides,  there  is  nothing  in  the  connection 
to  indicate  that  a  misalliance,  in  point  of  station,  was  the  occasion 
of  those  terrible  judgments  that  visited  the  earth.  (2.)  BothPhilo 
and  Josephus,  the  earliest  Christian  Fathers,  and  many  modem  com- 
mentators (such  as  Baumgarten,  Hofmann,  Knoble,  Ewald,  Dill-  -  (_, 
mann,  Delitzsch,  etc.)  hold  that  the  hene  Elohim  {Sons  of  God) 
were  angels.  There  are  several  reasons  which  seem  to  commend 
this  view  as  presented  by  evangelical  interpreters:  a.  The  term 
hene  Elohim  {Sons  of  God)  in  every  other  passage  is  applied  exclu- 
sively to  angels.  (Job  i,  6;  ii,  1;  xxxviii,  7.)  h.  It  seems  prob- 
able that  the  fallen  angels  mentioned  in  Jude,  6,  by  their  appear- 
ance on  the  earth,  contributed  to  the  terrible  catastrophe  of  the 
flood. 

But  while  the  term  hene  Elohim  signifies  angels  in  the  passages 
mentioned,  yet  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  any  such  designa- 
tion was  employed  for  them  in  Genesis,  where  they  are  spoken  of 
as  men  (xviii,  2),  and  afterwards  as  the  two  angels  {shene  hamma- 


94  APPENDIX  B. 


lachim,  xix,  1);  and  again  as  the  angels  of  God  (malache  Elohim, 
xxviii,  12,  which,  according  to  the  fragmentary  hypothesis,  belongs 
to  the  same  author  as  vi,  2).  Besides  this  fact,  however,  that  the 
author  of  Genesis  uses  a  different  designation  for  angels,  we  find 
that  pious  men  are  called  "  sons  of  the  living  God  "  {bene  El  Chay, 
Hos.  i,  10,  orii,  1,  and  Deut.  xiv,  1:  *'  Sons  are  ye  unto  the  Lord 
your  God  ").  Moreover,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  angels 
do  not  marry  (Matt,  xxii,  30).  Therefore  we  must  look  for  an- 
other interpretation.  (3.)  From  the  time  of  Augustine  and  Chry- 
sostomto  the  present  it  has  been  widely  held  that  the  hene  EJohhn 
{sons  of  God)  were  the  Sethites,  and  that  henoth  haadam  {daugh- 
ters of  men,  vi,  2,)  were  Cainitic  women.  This  view  is  best  adapted 
to  the  connection.  For  in  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  two 
lines  distinctly  discriminated;  that  of  Cain  (iv,  17-24),  and  that 
of  Seth,  who  took  the  place  of  Abel  (iv,  25).  These  were  prob- 
ably not  the  only  children  of  Adam,  but  are  mentioned  as  exam- 
ples of  the  antagonism  which  has  existed  between  the  church  and 
the  world.  The  Cainitic  race  is  distinguished  for  violence  (iv,  8, 
28,)  and  polygamy  (iv.  19);  that  of  Seth  for  piety  (iv,  26;  v,  22). 
Now,  what  explanation  have  we  in  the  preceding  hypothesis  of 
the  fact  that  the  earth  was  corrupt  and  filled  with  violence,  and 
that  Noah  was  the  only  one  of  the  Sethites  that  remained  faith- 
ful in  this  apostacy?  If  we  maintain  that  the  two  races  inter- 
married, we  have  a  reasonable  explanation  of  the  great  change 
which  came  over  the  race  of  Seth — one  that  was  fully  in  accor- 
dance with  the  warnings  of  the  Bible  (Num.  xxv,  1,  2;  Deut.  vii, 
8,  4;  Josh,  xxiii,  12,  13).  We  have  akeady  seen  that  pious  Israel- 
ites were  called  sons  of  God,  hence  there  is  no  reason  why  this 
term  should  not  be  applied  to  the  Sethites  here.  But  it  may  be  ob- 
jected that  the  term  henoth  haadam  (daughters  of  men,  vi,   2,) 


APPENDIX  C.  95 


cannot  apply  merely  to  the  Cainitic  women,  since  the  tei*m  men 
in  the  first  verse  has  a  more  general  signification.  This  objection, 
however,  is  not  serious,  when  we  consider  that  the  expression 
"daughters  of  men"  receives  a  special  and  narrower  signifi- 
cance through  contrast  with  the  tenn  "sons  of  God."  "When, 
therefore,  we  remember  that  angels  are  never  designated  by  this 
term  in  Genesis,  but  by  another;  that  God's  chosen  people  are 
called  his  children;  that  according  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  angels 
are  said  not  to  marry,  and  that  the  corruption  of  the  Sethites  is 
best  accounted  for  by  intermarriage  with  the  parallel  Cainitic 
race,  there  seem  to  me  to  be  the  best  reasons  for  adopting,  with 
Dettiuger,  Hengstenberg,  Keil,  Oehler  and  Lange,  the  view  just 
given. 


APPENDIX    a 

TRADITIONS  CONCERNING  THE  FLOOD. 

Although  unevangelical  scientists  and  negative  critics  dispute 
the  fact  of  the  Noachian  deluge,  and  try  to  explain  the  numerous 
traditions  respecting  this  event,  either  as  the  result  of  the  exag- 
gerated accounts  of  local  floods,  or  from  a  tendency  of  the  human 
race  to  produce  the  same  myths,  yet,  when  we  examine  these 
various  traditions,  the  theories  proposed  do  not  seem  to  furnish  so 
satisfactory  an  explanation  of  their  great  number,  and  of  the 
striking  similarity  which  we  find  in  some  of  them,  as  the  suppo- 
sition that  many  of  them  are  more  or  less  distinct  reminiscences 
of  the  same  great  catastrophe. 

Let  us  consider  a  few  of  these  traditions  in  detail.    With  the 


96  APPENDIX  C. 


exception  of  some  new  matters  whicli  I  have  gleaned  from  other 
sources,  I  am  indebted  to  Prof.  0.  Zockler  {Lie  Simitjiuth-Sagen 
des  AUerthums  in  the  Jahrhiccher  fur  Deutsche  Theologie^  Gotha, 
1870,  pp.  319-42)  for  the  materials  of  the  following  sketch: 

1. 

THE  CHALDEAN  STORY  OF  THE  FLOOD. 

This  tradition,  according  to  George  Smith  {The  Chaldean  Ac' 
count  of  the  Genesis^  New  York,  1876,  p.  286),  corresponds  with 
the  Biblical  account  in  Genesis  in  twenty-three  particulars, 
although  with  certain  differences.  The  flood  is  said  to  be  sent,  as 
it  would  seem,  in  punishment  of  sin.  An  ark  is  to  be  constructed 
and  covered  within  and  without  with  bitumen.  The  animals  are 
to  be  rescued  in  it.  After  seven  days  the  ark  rests  upon  a  moun- 
tain. A  dove  and  swallow  are  sent  forth,  which  both  return,  but 
a  raven  that  is  set  at  liberty  does  not  come  back  again.  A  sacri- 
fice is  offered  after  the  denizens  of  the  ark  have  left  it.  The  prayer 
rises  that  a  flood  may  no  more  visit  the  earth,  which  is  followed 
by  a  divine  covenant  and  blessing.  While  this  account  differs  in 
detail  from  the  one  in  Genesis,  yet  these  points  of  similarity  can- 
not have  been  accidental. 

2. 

THE  ACCOUNT  OF  BEROSUS, 

"Xisuthros,  the  Babylonian  Noah,  the  last  of  the  ten  antedilu- 
vian patriarchs  or  primitive  kings,  receives  in  a  dream  a  vision  of 
the  God  Kronos,  who  announces  to  him  that  man  will  be  destroyed 
on  the  fifteenth  of  the  month  Desios  by  a  universal  flood,  and  com- 
mands him  to  build  a  ship  for  the  rescue  of  himself  and  his  near- 
est relatives  and  friends.    The  ship,  which  Xisuthros,  obedient  to 


APPENDIX  C.  97 


this  connnand  constructs,  has  the  colossal  lenj^th  of  five  stadia  (over 
2,800  feet),  and  a  breadth  of  two  stadia  (between  eleven  and  twelve 
hundred  feet).  Besides  the  food  for  himself,  his  family  and  friends, 
Xisuthros  takes  a  large  number  of  animals  and  birds  with  him  in 
the  ship,  and  thus  saves  them  also  from  the  universal  destruction. 
When  the  waters  begin  to  diminish,  he  lets  one  of  the  birds  fly, 
but  it  returns  without  having  found  a  resting  place.  A  second, 
sent  out  later,  returns  with  some  mud  on  its  feet.  A  third  does 
not  return.  Tlie  ark  lands  upon  one  of  the  mountains  of  Armenia. 
Xisuthros,  with  his  wife  and  children,  leave  the  ark.  He  rears  an 
altar  to  the  gods  and  brings  them  offerings.  As  a  reward  for  this, 
his  piety,  he  as  well  as  his  friends,  at  a  later  period,  are  taken  to 
heaven  and  placed  among  the  gods." 

We  find  in  the  general  outlines  of  this  Chaldeo-Babj'lonian 
myth,  which  is  related  to  the  preceding,  a  strong  resemblance  to 
the  Biblical  narrative. 

3. 

INDO-EUEOPEAN  TRADITIONS. 

The  Armenian  tradition  mentions  Ararat  as  the  landing-place. 
The  Greek  tradition,  while  it  localizes  the  deluge  in  different  ways, 
according  to  the  mythical  point  of  view  of  the  various  Greek  tribes, 
considers  the  flood  in  every  case  as  a  destruction  of  all  men  with 
a  few  exceptions.  The  East  Indian  tradition  is  interesting  in  this 
respect,  that  the  entire  human  race  after  the  flood  are  descended 
from  Manus,  and  the  seven  wise  ones  who  are  rescued  with  him, 
thus  corresponding  to  the  eight  persons  saved  in  the  ark,  as  men- 
tioned in  Genesis  (Noah  and  his  wife,  his  three  sons  and  their 
wives).  While  the  Persians,  the  Germans,  and  the  Scandinavians 
have  their  traditions,  they  are  peculiar  in  confusing  the  creation 
and  the  deluge,  Adam  and  Noah  together. 


98  APPENDIX  C. 


4. 

THE   CHINESE   TRADITION,    600   B.   C. 

'*  Under  tlie  three  primitive  emperors,  Yao,  Si  and  Ki,  an  im- 
mense flood  covered  all  the  nine  parts  of  the  world,  even  the  highest 
mountains,  and  drowned  all  men.  Only  the  three  emperors,  Yao, 
Si  and  Ki,  whose  names  have  an  apparent  relationship  with  those 
of  the  sons  of  Noah,  Japheth,  Shem  and  Ham  (Cham,  ch==k)  save 
themselves  in  a  ship,  which  finally  lands  on  the  smiimit  of  the 
mountain  Jo-lii.  After  the  drawing  off  of  the  waters,  they  bring 
a  thank-offering  in  the  middle  of  the  world,  to  the  God  of  heaven, 
Shang^i.i" 

5. 

AMERICAN   TRADITIONS, 

The  Macusi  Ind'ans  of  South  America,  represent  that  the  only 
persons  rescued  from  the  immense  floodpeopled  the  earth  by  throw- 
ing stones  behind  them.  The  Maypuren  and  Tamanaken  on  the 
Orinoco  have  the  same  tradition,  which  resembles  that  of  Deuca- 
lion and  Pyrrha,  only  the  human  race  who  have  been  saved  cast 
behind  them  the  fruit  of  the  MauriziaPalm,  out  of  whose  kernels 
new  men  arose.  Various  Brazilian  Indian  tribes  derive  their  own 
and  all  other  Indian  races,  from  two  people,  a  brother  and  a  sis- 
ter, who  only  escaped  from  a  great  flood.  According  to  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  Peruvians,  shortly  before  Manco  Capac  and  his  sister, 
the  children  of  the  sun,  who  came  from  the  southeast,   founded 

iKlaproth  a.  a.  O.  Windischmann,  Philosophie  1. 1,  S.  211;  GiitzlafF, 
Geschichte  des  chines.  Reichs  (von  Neumann),  p.  26,  f.  Vgl.  P.J.  Plath, 
Ueber  die  Glaubwiirdigkeit  der  altesten  chines.  Geschichte,  Miinchen, 
1866.  Lyell  (Principles  of  Geology,  New  York,  1877,  vol.  1,  pp.  10-11)  asserts 
on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Davis,  who  accompanied  two  embas.sies  to  China 
that  the  great  flood  of  the  Chinese  has  been  erroneously  identified  with  the 
Noachian  deluge.  It  seems  doubtful  however,  whether  Mr.  Davis  saw 
the  tradition  in  the  form  given  above. 


APPENDIX  C.  90 


the  oldkingfdom  of  the  Incas  with  its  service  of  the  sun,  only  four 
men  and  four  women,  or  eight  persons  in  iill,  escaped  from  the 
waters  of  a  universal  deluge  to  the  caves  of  the  highest  mountains 
and  did  not  go  out  from  them  again  until  the  dogs  which  they  had 
sent  forth  to  investigate,  no  longer  returned  with  wet,  but  with 
nmddy  feet.  The  Aztecs  of  Mexico  relate  partly  in  oral  traditions, 
partly  by  means  of  remarkable  representations  upon  old  stone 
monuments,  that  only  one  man,  Coxcox,  with  his  wife,  Cihuakoatl, 
(the  "  serpent-woma.n"  through  whom  sin  entered  into  the  world 
after  the  flood)  saved  themselves  in  a  boat  from  the  universal 
flood.  The  birds  which  were  sent  out  to  ascertain  the  state  of  the 
water,  appear  to  have  played  a  prominent  part  in  this  tradition." 
It  has  been  urged  that  these  traditions  may  have  been  imported 
from  Christian  Europe  by  the  Northmen,  or  by  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese;  Zockler,  however,  maintains  that  they  have  come  with 
the  people  from  eastern  Asia  over  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  this  con- 
nection he  mentions  a  fact,  which  tends  to  show  the  fallacy  of 
Lyell's  position :  that  the  various  accounts  of  the  flood  among  dif- 
ferent nations  have  arisen  from  local  inundations,  namely,  that  the 
tradition  of  the  building  of  a  tower  as  the  occasion  of  the  separa- 
tion of  the  peoples  and  the  confusion  of  tongues,  is  found  among 
almost  all  of  the  above  named  tribes  of  North  America.  As  evi- 
dence of  the  position  that  these  traditions  were  rather  derived  by 
the  way  of  ihe  Pacific  at  a  very  early  period,  than  by  the  Atlantic 
through  Christian  influence,  he  shows  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Fiji,  Samoan,  Tahitian  and  South  Sea  islands,  all  have  their  le- 
gends of  the  deluge  in  various  forms,  thus  establishing  a  bridge 
between  the  eastern  shore  of  Asia  and  the  American  continent. 


100  APPENDIX  D. 


APPENDIX   D. 

THE  RAPID  INCREASE  OF  THE  ISRAELITES  IN  EGYPT. 

Rosenmliller  says:  ^  "  The  Israelites  lived  in  the  most  productive 
portion  of  the  most  productive  of  all  lands,  which,  through  the 
fruitfulness  of  the  women,  was  also  so  pre-eminent  above  all  other 
lands,  that,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  greatest  of  all  natu- 
ralists among  the  ancients,  Aristotle,  the  women  in  Egypt  not  only 
often  bore  twins,  but  also  brought  to  light  far  more  frequently 
than  elsewhere,  three,  four,  and  sometimes  five  children  at  a  birth. 
He  tells  us  of  a  woman  {Hist.  Animal^  vii,  4)  who  was  in  the  last 
named  condition  four  times.^  Maillet,  who  lived  sixteen  years  as 
French  consul  in  Egypt,  says:^  *'  The  air  in  this  country  is  much 
purer  and  better  than  in  any  other.  This  salubrity  of  the  air  im- 
parts itself  to  all  organic  beings — plants  and  animals.  The 
females,  not  only  of  the  human  species,  but  also  of  animals,  are 
more  fruitful  than  any  other  in  the  world." 

Reignald  Stuart  Poole  of  the  British  Museum,  remarks*  (article 
Egypt):  *'It  is  deemed  disreputable  for  a  young  man  not  to 
marry  when  he  has  attained  a  sufficient  age;  there  are  therefore 
few  unmarried  men.  Girls,  in  like  manner,  marry  veiy  young; 
some  even  at  ten  years  of  age,  and  few  remain  single  beyond  the 
age  of  sixteen;  they  are  generally  very  prolific.' ^  The  Italics  are 
my  own. 

1  Das  alte  und  neue  Morgmland,  Leipzig,  1818,  vol.  1  p.  252. 

2  Compare  Columella,  De  re  rust,  ill,  8 ;  Plln.  Hist.  Nat.,  vii,  3. 
s  Description  de  V  Egypte,  Paris,  1733,  i,p.  18. 
^EncycLpxdia  BnLannica,  New  York,  1878,  Vol.  vii,  p.  725. 


APPENDIX  E.  101 


APPENDIX    E. 

THE    FORMER   CONDITION    OF    THE  WILDERNESS  OF 

SINAI. 

"While  the  -wilderness'  was  in  the  time  of  the  Israelites  an  in- 
hospitable country,  yet  travelers  agree  in  supposing  that  its  re- 
sources for  the  sustenance  of  a  people  and  their  flocks  were  once 
much  greater  than  at  present.  The  arguments  for  this  position  are 
essentially  as  follows : 

1.  At  the  present  time,  even  under  the  most  unfavorable  condi- 
tions, if  a  fords  some  facilities  for  pasturage  and  gardening. 

Prof.  E.  H.  Palmer,  of  Cambridge,  England,  who  spent  ten 
months  with  a  party  engaged  in  the  suiTey  of  the  Desert  of  the 
Wanderings,  has  furnished  much  valuable  information,  bearing 
on  the  first  as  well  as  the  other  points.  Speaking  of  the  Tih,  he 
remarks:  ^  "In  the  larger  wadies,  draining  as  they  do  so  exten- 
sive an  area,  a  very  considerable  amount  of  moisture  infiltrates 
through  the  soil,  producing  much  more  vegetation  than  in  the 
plains.  Sufiicient  pasturage  for  the  camels  is  always  to  be  had  in 
these  spots,  and  here  and  there  a  few  patches  of  ground  are  even 
available  for  cultivation." 

In  his  account  of  the  means  of  livelihood  among  the  Teyaheh, 
who  occupy  the  central  portion  of  Et  Tih,  he  thus  describes  the 
food  of  those  who  are  not  public  carriers:  ^    "  Such  of  them  as  are 

1  Palmer,  T?ie  Desert  of  the  Exodus,  New  York,  1872,  p.  232,  says :  "  The  scenes 
of  the  Exodus  undoubtedly  took  place  in  that  desert  region,  which  is  called 
by  the  appropriate  name  of  Arabia  Petraea,  or  the  Stony.  This  includes,  be- 
sides the  Sinaitic  Peninsula,  the  Badiet  et  Tih,  (literally  signifying  'the 
Desert  of  the  Wanderings ')  and  some  portion  of  Idumaea  and  Moab?" 

2  Ibid.  p.  235. 
8  Ibid.  p.  239. 


102  APPENDIX  E. 


not  fortunate  enough  to  participate  in  this  traffic,  live  ahnost  en- 
tirely on  the  milk  of  their  sheep  and  camels,  occasionally  selling- 
one  of  the  latter,  if  this  resource  fail  from  drought  or  other  causes. 
In  many  other  parts  of  the  desert,  milk  forms  the  sole  article  of 
diet  obtainable  by  the  Bedouins;  and  I  have  heard  a  well- authen- 
ticated case  of  an  x'\.rab  in  the  north  of  Syria,  who  for  three  years 
had  not  tasted  either  water  or  solid  food;  an  Arab,  therefore,  in 
selecting  a  spot  for  his  encampment,  regards  the  existence  of  a 
good  supply  of  pasturage  as  of  much  greater  importance  than  prox- 
imity of  water.  Only  the  Bedouins  of  the  mountainous  districts 
engage  in  anything  like  agricultural  pursuits."  In  a  similiar  vein 
he  says :  ^  "  The  Arabs  do  occasionally  practice  agriculture,  if  sow- 
ing a  little  corn  in  a  roughly  ploughed  field,  and  leaving  the  irri- 
gation to  chance,  can  be  so  called,  but  it  never  occurs  to  them  to 
take  advantage  of  the  works  left  them  by  the  former  owners  of  the 
soil." 

How  closely  the  barrenness  of  the  desert  is  connected  with  the 
neglect  of  its  denizens  is  indicated  in  the  following  passage :  ^ 
"  Camels  and  sheep  are,  as  I  have  before  said,  the  Bedouins'  only 
means  of  subsistence;  and  so  long,  then,  as  he  lives  his  present 
unsettled  life,  and  can  support  himself  with  the  milk  which  they 
produce,  he  is  indpendent  of  all  occupation  save  plundering.  The 
effect  of  this  is  that  the  soil  he  owns  deteriorates." 

Regarding  the  effects  of  cultivation  in  the  wilderness,  Stanley 
remarks:^  "How  much  may  be  done  by  a  careful  use  of  such 
water  and  such  soil  as  the  Desert  supplies,  may  be  seen  by  the  oul^^ 
two  spots  to  which,  now,  a  diligent  and  provident  attention  is 
paid;  namely,  the  gardens  at  the  Wells  of  Moses,  under  the  care 

1  Ibid.  p.  241. 

2  Palmer,  The  Desert  of  the  Exodus,  New  York,  1872,  p.  243. 

3  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  New  York,  1870,  p.  27. 


APPENDIX  E.  103 


of  the  French  and  English  afjents  from  Suez,  and  the  gardens  in 
the  valleys  of  Gebel  Mousa,  under  the  care  of  the  Greek  monks  of 
the  Convent  of  St.  Catherine." 

"Without  dwelling  upon  this  point,  which  has  been  abundantly 
corroborated  by  other  travelers,^  we  must  remember, 

2.  The  ivilderness  of  Sinai  is  believed  to  have  been  ancientJy 
m  uch  more  productive. 

In  this  connection,  Palmer's  theory,  that  northern  Syria  to  Sinai, 
southward,  is  characterized  by  a  diminishing  degree  of  fertility,  is 
of  great  interest.  The  most  fertile  section  is  that  of  Syria,  which 
has  a  well-watered  and  productive  soil.  In  Palestine  from  Mount 
Hermon,  the  soil  is  less  productive.  The  south  country  of  Palestine 
from  the  mountains  of  Judea  to  Kadesh,  although  now  a  barren 
waste,  *'  presents  signs  of  the  most  extensive  cultivation  even  at  a 
comparatively  modem  period.  .  .  Between  this  [south  country] 
and  the  edge  of  the  Tih  plateau,  the  country  is  even  more  barren; 
but  there  are  still  traces  of  a  primeval  race  of  inhabitants  in  the 
cairns  and  stone  huts.  .  .  At  the  time  of  the  Exodus,  it  must  have 
borne  a  similar  relation  to  the  then  fertile  region  of  the  south 
country,  which  that  now  barren  tract  at  the  present  day,  bears  to 
Palestine.  .  .  From  the  analogous  recession  of  fertility  northward, 
we  may  fairly  conclude  that  the  surrounding  country  was  then 
better  supplied  with  water  than  it  is  now,  and  that  it  was,  therefore, 
at  least  as  suitable  for  the  encampment  of  the  Israelitish  hosts  as 
any  spot  in  Sinai.  "^ 

1  Robinson's  Biblical  Researches,  Vol.  I,  p.  62,  fF. ;  Cf.  Wellstedt's  Reisen  in 
Arabien,  Halle,  1842,  Vol.  II  p.  62;  Ti-schcndorf,  R  ise  in  den  Orient,  Leipzig, 
lb40,  Vol.  I,  p.  187  ff. ;  Ans  clem  heiliijen  Lande,  Leipzig,  1S63,  p.  42  ff. ;  Ebers 
Durch  Gosen  zum  i^inai,  Leipzig,  1872.  p.  184  ff. ;  Schaff,  Through  Bible  Lands, 
New  York,  1878,  pp.  ins,  187,  200;  Bartlett,  Fiom  Egypt  to  ralcstine.  New 
York,  1879,  pp.  225,  254,  256,  276,  etc. 

2  The  Detert  qf  the  Exodus,  New  York,  1872,  p.  2S5. 


104  APPENDIX  E. 


But  there  a,re  positive  facts  wliicli  indicate  that  the  country  was 
once  much  better  adapted  to  afford  sustenance  for  flocks  and  herds 
than  at  present.  It  is  well  known,  what  an  effect  the  destruction 
of  trees  has  in  decreasing  the  moisture  of  any  country.  The  trunks 
of  palm  trees,  preserved  by  the  salt,  which  have  been  washed  up 
from  the  Dead  Sea,  on  whose  shores  they  no  longer  exist,  show 
how  the  storms  which  must  have  raged  with  much  more  violence 
in  the  mountains  of  Sinai,  may  have  stripped  away  the  trees.  In- 
deed Burckhardt,  writing  May  16,  1816,  relates  in  regard  to  the 
eastern  side  of  Mount  Sinai :^  "  On  the  declivity  of  the  mountains, 
farther  on,  I  saw  many  ruins  of  walls,  and  was  informed  by  my 
guides,  that  fifty  years  ago  this  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  valleys 
of  their  country,  full  of  date  and  other  fruit  trees;  but  that  a  violent 
flood  tore  up  all  the  trees,  and  laid  it  waste  in  a  few  days,  and  that 
since  that  period  it  has  been  deserted."  Wellstedt  mentions  a  flood 
occurring  in  1832  near  Tor,  which  rose  to  the  height  of  five  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  valley,  and  swept  several  trees  away.'^ 

But  Rev.  F.  W.  Holland,  who  claims  that  the  peninsula  of  Sinai 
must  once  have  been  far  more  fertile,  gives  the  most  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  origin  and  the  effect  of  floods.  He  says  :^  "In  con- 
sequence, too,  of  the  mountainous  character  of  the  peninsula  of 
Sinai,  the  destruction  of  the  trees  would  have  a  much  more  seri- 
ous effect  than  would  be  the  case  in  most  countries.  Formerly, 
when  the  mountain- sides  were  terraced,  when  garden- walls 
extended  across  the  wadies,  and  the  roots  of  trees  retained  the 
moisture  and  broke  the  force  of  the  water,  the  terrible  floods  that 
now  occur,  and  sweep  everything  before  them,  were  impossible." 

1  Travels  in  Syria  and  the  Holy  Land,  London,  1822,  p.  538. 

2  Reisen  in  Arabien,  Halle;  1842,  Vol.  ii,  p.  15. 

3  Capt.  Wilson,  Capt.  Warreu,  etc.  The  Recovery  of  Jerusalem;  New 
York,  1871,  p.  425. 


APPENDIX  E.  105 


And  then  he  goes  on  to  describe  how  in  the  winter  of  1?67,  he 
witnessed  in  Wady  Feiran,  one  of  the  greatest  floods  that  has 
ever  been  known  in  the  peninsula,  and  how  he  had  to  escape  for 
his  Hfe.  *'  In  less  than  two  hours,  a  dry  desert  wady,  upward  of 
three  hundred  yards  broad,  was  turned  into  a  foaming  torrent 
from  eight  to  ten  feet  deep,  roaring  and  tearing  down,  and  bear- 
ing everything  before  it  (so  that  after  the  storm),  two  miles  of 
tamarisk-wood,  which  was  situated  above  the  palm-groves,  had 
been  completely  washed  away,  and  upward  of  a  thousand  palm- 
trees  swept  down  to  the  sea.     .    .    . 

"The  fact  is,  that  in  consequence  of  the  barrenness  of  the 
mountains,  the  water,  when  a  heavy  storm  of  rain  falls,  runs  down 
from  their  rocky  sides  just  as  it  does  in  this  country  from  the 
roofs  of  our  houses.  .  .  .  The  monks  used  formerly  to  build 
walls  across  the  gullies  leading  down  from  the  mountains;  they 
planted  the  wadies  with  fruit  trees,  and  made  terraces  for  their 
gardens,  and  these  checked  the  drainage,  and  let  it  down  by 
degrees,  so  that  the  storms  in  their  days  must  have  been  compar- 
atively harmless.  The  Amalekites  and  former  inhabitants  of  the 
peninsula  adopted  probably  the  same  means  for  increasing  the 
fertility  of  their  country." 

In  addition  to  the  violence  of  nature,  the  inhabitants  have  con- 
tributed their  share  in  desolating  the  wilderness. 

Ruppell,  as  quoted  by  Stanley,^  observes  that  the  acacia  trees 
have  been  of  late  years  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  the  Bedouins  for 
the  sake  of  charcoal ;  especially  since  they  have  been  compelled  by 
the  Pasha  of  Egypt  to  pay  a  'tribute  in  charcoal  for  an  assau:t 
committed  on  the  Mecca  caravan  in  the  year  1823.  Charcoal  from 
the  acacia  is,  in  fact,  the  chief,  perhaps  it  might  be  said  the  only, 

1  Sinai  and  Palestine,  New  York,  1870,  p.  27. 


106  APPENDIX  E. 


traffic  of  the  peninsula."  Hence  it  has  been  weil  remarked:^ 
"The  devastation  which  began  ages  ago  has,  in  fact,  continued 
without  cessation,  and  if  it  goes  on  at  the  present  rate  of  increase, 
will  ere  long  reduce  the  whole  district  to  a  state  of  utter  aridity 
and  barrenness.  When  Niebuhr  visited  the  country  at  the  begin- 
ning- of  the  last  century,  large  supplies  of  vegetable  produce  were 
exported  regularly  to  Egypt,  showing  that  the  original  fertility  was 
not  even  then  exhausted.  Those  supplies  have  ceased,  and  the  only 
wonder  is  that  so  much  remains  to  satisfy  a  careful  inquirer  of  the 
possibility  of  the  events  recorded  in  Exodus." 

Seetzen,^  Stanley,  and  Ebers  incline  to  think  that  the  wilder- 
ness was  so  very  much  more  productive  then  than  at  present  as  to 
afford  substantial  supplies  to  the  Israelites  during  their  wander- 
ings. However  this  may  be,  we  have  no  right  to  assume  that  there 
was  not  sufficient  pasturage  for  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  we 
know  not  which  to  wonder  at  most,  the  ignorance  of  a  man  who 
says  there  was  not  a  blade  of  grass,  or  the  credulity  of  those  who 
applaud  him. 

1  Speaker's  Commemtary,  New  York,  1871,  Vol.  1,  p.  246. 

2  He  really  visited  it  in  1762.  See  Ritter,  The  Comparative  Geography  of 
Palestine,  New  York,  1870,  Vol.  I,  pp.  255-56. 

sSeetzen,  whom  Ebers  quotes  with  approval  (Durch  Gosen,  p.  234),  says, 
Vol.  Ill,  p.  79  :  "What  hindered  them  [the  TsraelitesJ  from  enjoying  one  of 
the  most  healthful  and  appetizing  means  of  diet,  the  milk  and  its  products 
which  their  accompanying  herds  aflbrded  them,  and  on  which  many  tribes 
of  the  Bedouins  still  almost  exclusively  subsist?  What  hindered  them 
from  slaughtering  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  from  enjoying  the  wild  edible 
plants,  such  as  the  Bedouins  now  use  [Cf.  Palmer,  p.  260j  the  fruit  of  date 
trees,  and  the  fish  which  the  sea  along  the  entire  coast  produced  in  abun- 
dance? What  hindered  them  from  hunting  birds  [Schubert  Reise  in  das 
Morgenland,  Erlangen,  1839,  Vol.  II,  360-61,  speaks  of  seeing  clouds  of  birds 
in  the  neighborhood  as  he  supposes  of  Kibroth-Hattaavah,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Hammer,  geschichte  des  Osmanischen  Reiches,  22ie  Ausgabe,  Vol.  I, 
p.  724,  appear  every  spring.  He  says:  "A  cloud  of  quails  or  other  small 
birds  resembling  them,  darkens  the  neighborhood  all  around,  which  the 
inhabitants  preserve  in  vinegar  as  an  article  of  food  and  trade"],  gazelles 


APPENDIX  F.  107 


APPENDIX    F. 
"THE  LAND  FLOWING  WITH  MILK  AND  HONEY." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  ancient  fertility  of  Palestine. 
This  is  attested  both  by  ancient  and  modeni  writers. 

1.  Tacitus  says  regarding  it  (Hist.  V,  6):  "Showers  are  rare, 
the  soil  is  rich.  Besides  our  customary  fruit,  the  balsam  and  palm 
are  found."  Ammianus  Marcellinus  testifies  (Book  XIV,  Ch.  viii, 
§  11):  "The  last  province  of  the  Syrias  is  Palestine,  a  district  of 
great  extent,  abounding  in  well- cultivated  and  beautiful  land." 
Josephus  adds  his  testimony  (Wars  of  the  Jews,  Book  III,  Ch.  iii, 
§  2,  Cf.  ii,  xxi,  2;  iii,  x,  8):  "Nor  hath  the  country  [of  the  Galli- 
leans]  been  ever  destitute  of  men  of  courage,  or  wanted  a  numer- 
ous set  of  them;  for  their  soil  is  universally  rich  and  fruitful,  and 
full  of  the  plantations  of  trees  of  all  sorts,  insomuch  that  it  invites 
the  most  slothful  to  take  pains  in  its  cultivation,  by  its  fruitfulness ; 
accordingly  it  is  all  cultivated  by  its  inhabitants,  and  no  part  of  it 
lies  idle.  Moreover,  the  cities  lie  here  very  thick ;  and  the  very 
many  villages  there  are  here,  are  everywhere  so  full  of  people,  by 
the  richness  of  their  soil,  that  the  very  least  of  them  contain  above 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.    (Ill,  x  8):  The  country  also  that  lies 

[Robinson,  I,  p.  43,  Wellsted,  II,  p.  50],  goats,  etc.,  and  from  catching 
locusts." 

Compare,  however,  some  very  sensible  remarks  by  Bartlett  (From  Egypt  'o 
Palestine,  New  York,  1873,  p.  355),  where  after  making  every  allowance  for  the 
supplies  which  the  Israelites  might  obtain  from  the  wilderness  he  says : 
"The  consistency  of  the  Biblical  narrative  is  in  nothing  more  manifest  than 
in  the  fact  that  it  narrates  the  Divine  interposition  to  give  the  people  water 
as  only  an  exceptional  thing  (Cf.  Wellsted,  II,  p.  Gl),  but  the  miraculous 
supply  of  food  as  constant  and  permanent." 


108  APPENDIX  F. 


over- against  this  lake  hath  the  same  name  of  Gennesareth;  its  na- 
ture is  wonderful,  as  well  as  its  beauty;  its  soil  is  so  fruitful  that 
all  sorts  of  trees  can  grow  upon  it,  .  .  .  for  the  temper  of  the 
air  is  so  well  mixed,  that  it  agrees  very  well  with  those  several 
sorts,  particularly  walnuts,  which  require  the  coldest  air,  flourish 
there  in  vast  plenty;  there  are  palm-trees  also,  which  grow  best  in 
hot  air;  fig-trees  also,  and  olives  grow  near  them,  which  yet  re- 
quire an  air  that  is  more  temperate.  .  .  .  It  is  a  happy  con- 
tention of  the  seasons,  as  if  every  one  of  them  laid  claim  to  this 
country;  for  it  not  only  nourishes  different  sorts  of  autumnal  fruit 
beyond  men's  expectations,  but  preserves  them  a  great  while;  it 
supplies  men  with  the  principal  fruits,  with  grapes  and  figs  con- 
tinually, during  ten  months  of  the  year.  (Ill,  iii,  4) :  They  [Judea 
and  Samaria]  have  abundance  of  trees,  and  are  full  of  autumnal 
fruit,  both  that  which  grows  wild,  and  that  which  is  the  effect  of 
cultivation.  ...  By  reason  also  of  the  excellent  grass  they 
have,  their  cattle  yield  more  milk  than  do  those  in  other  places;  and 
what  is  the  greatest  sign  of  excellency  and  of  abundance,  they 
each  of  them  are  very  full  of  people.  (IV,  viii,  3.)  This  country 
(in  the  vicinity  of  Jericho)  withal  produces  honey  from  bees." 

2.  Rosenmtlller  {Das  alte  und  neue  Morgenland,  Leipzig,  1818, 
Vol.  T,  p.  263  ff.)>  says  that  milk  and  honey  were  the  chief  delica- 
cies of  the  ancients,  and  that  the  Bedouins  express  the  happiness 
of  a  rich  man  and  a  prince  by  the  proverb:  "  He  sleeps  with  his 
mouth  on  a  bottle  of  honey."  Hence,  through  an  abundance  of 
milk  and  honey,  not  only  the  Hebrews,  but  also  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  indicated  the  highest  pleasure  and  fruitfulness.  Thus 
the  chorus  in  the  Bacchai  of  Euripides,  v.  142,  sing : 

"  The  land  streams  with  honey, 
It  streameth  with  wine, 
It  streams  with  the  nectar  of  bees." 


APPENDIX  F.  109 


And  Ovid,  in  his  Metamorphoses^  i,  111-12,  describes  the  golden 
age: 

"  Here  rivers  of  milk,  there  rivers  of  nectar  were  flowing, 
And  from  the  green  of  the  oaks  the  yellow  honey  was  dropping." 

In  the  above  passage  [Ex.  iii,  8]  God  describes  the  land  of 
Canaan,  or  Palestine,  as  an  exceedingly  pleasant  and  fruitful  land  ; 
and  it  is  so  by  nature,  although  it  is  so  little  distinguished  at  the 
present  day  for  the  rich  productiveness  of  the  soil.  If  Palestine 
were  still  cultivated  and  inhabited  as  formerly,  it  would  not  be 

inferior  to  any  land  in  fertility  and  agreeableness The 

fame  of  the  fertility  of  Palestine,  and  its  former  abundance  of 
grain,  wine  and  dates,  has  been  perpetuated  through  ancient  coins, 
which  are  still  in  existence.  The  country,  however,  has  been 
laid  waste  repeatedly,  and  has  suffered  greatly  since  it  has  come 
into  the  hands  of  the  Turks.  However,  traces  of  the  natural 
beauty  and  fertility  of  the  land  have  not  even  yet  entirely  disap- 
peared, as  the  following  quotation  from  d'Arvieux's  Reiseyiy^  ii., 
p.  204.  will  show:  "One  must  admit,  that  if  it  were  possible 
to  Hve  safely  in  this  country,  it  would  afford  the  most  beautiful 
and  agreeable  residence  in  the  world,  partially  on  account  of  the 
charming  variety  of  mountains  and  valleys,  partly  on  account  of 
the  healthful  air,  which,  through  the  natural  flowers  of  the 
valleys  and  the  fragrant  plants  upon  the  heights,  is  always 
filled  with  balmy  odors.  Most  of  these  mountains  are,  indeed, 
dry  and  ban-en,  and  present  more  rock  than  soil  adapted  to 
cultivation,  but  the  industry  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  has 
overcome  this  defect  of  the  ground.  They  hewed  into  these 
rocks  from  the  foot  to  the  summit,  at  regular  intervals,  filling  in 
with  soil,  in  which  they  planted,  as  upon  the  coast  of  Genoa, 

1  The  original  was  entitled :     Voyage  fait  par  ordre  du  Rot  dans  la  Pales- 
tine, vers  le  grand  Emir,  Paris,  1717. 


110  APPENDIX  F. 


olives,  fig-s,  grape-vines  and  grain,  together  with  all  kinds  of 
leguminous  plants,  which,  through  the  help  of  the  usual  early  and 
late  rains,  and  of  the  dew  which  never  ceases,  the  warmth  of  the 
sun  and  of  the  mild  climate,  produces  the  best  fruits,  and  the  most 
excellent  corn.  Such  terraces  are  still  to  be  seen,  which  the  Arabs 
in  the  surrounding  villages  preserve  and  cultivate  with  industry." 
Kosenmtiller  goes  on  to  state  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Hebron  alone  exported  fifteen  tons  of  grape 
syrup  ^  to  Egypt,  and  after  speaking  of  the  cotton  which  the  plain  of 
Esdraelon  produces,  he  says :  ' '  Numerous  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep 
feed  on  the  green  hills  of  Galilee,  and  in  the  well  watered  meadows 
of  the  northern  valley  of  the  Jordan.  Countless  swarms  of  wild  bees 
gather  honey  in  the  hollow  trees,  and  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks: 
and  so  U  is  still  literally  true  that  Palestine  has  an  abundance  of 
milk  and  honey.''''  ^ 

1  Compare  Robinson's  Biblical  Eesearches,  Boston,  1868,  Vol.  ii,  81. 

2  Dean  Stanley,  in  his  Si7iai  and  Palestine,  New  York,  1870,  pp.  120-124,  has 
shown  most  conclusively  that  an  an  affirmative  answer  can  be  returned  to 
the  question  :  "  Can  these  stony  hills,  these  deserted  valleys  be  indeed  the 
Land  of  Promise,  the  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  ?  " 

"  (1)  The  existence  of  a  flourishing  town  or  village  on  every  hill,  shows 
what  the  resources  of  the  country  must  once  have  been. 

"(2)  Those  resources  have  been  reduced  tenfold  (p.  120)  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  forests  and  terraces. 

"(3)  Palestine,  not  merely  by  its  situation  [with  reference  to  the  neigh- 
boring wastes],  but  by  its  comparative  fertility,  might  well  be  considered 
the  prize  of  the  Eastern  world,  the  possession  of  which  was  the  mark  of 
God's  peculiar  favor;  the  spot  for  which  the  nations  would  contend.  [The 
city  of  Jerusalem  has  been  besieged  twenty-seven  times— Our  Work  in  Pales- 
tine, London,  1873,  pp.  48-68] :  as  on  a  smaller  scale  the  Bedouin  tribes  for 
some  'diamond  of  the  desert'— some  'palm-grove  islanded  amid  the 
waste.' " 


APPENDIX  G.  Ill 


APPENDIX     G. 

RAMSES  II.    AND   MOSES. 

Dr.  Heinrich  Brugsch-Bey,  Gescliichte  JEgyptens  unter  den 
Pharaonen,  Leipzig,  1877,  conclusively  shows  that  Ramses  II.  was 
a  contemporary  of  Moses.  He  says,  pp.  549-50:  "  The  new  Pha- 
raoh, who  did  not  know  anything  of  Joseph  (Ex,  i,  8),  who 
adorned  the  city  of  Ramses,  the  capital  of  the  Tanitic  province, 
and  the  city  Pithom  (Ex.  i,  11),  the  capital  of  the  district,  after- 
wards called  Sethroites,  with  temple-cities  [instead  of  treasure  cit- 
ies, as  the  Egyptian  meskenet  according  to  Brugsch  signifies  tem- 
ple], is  no  other — can  he  no  oilier — than  Ramses  II,  of  whose 
buildings  at  Zoan  the  monuments  and  papyrus  rolls  speak  in  full 
agreement.  .  .  .  Ramses  II.  is  the  Pharaoh  of  the  oppression;  he  is 
the  father  of  that  nameless  princess,  who  found  on  the  bank 
of  the  stream,  among  the  reeds,  the  child  Moses." 

Upon  p.  563  he  mentions  the  following  interesting  fact:     "  The 

monuments  name  among  the  daughters  of  Pharaoh his 

favorite  daughter  with  a  Semitic  designation,  Bint-antha :  '  The 
daughter  of  Anaitis,' called  Meri-amon  and  Neb-taui.  A  much 
younger  sister,  by  the  name  of  Meri  seems  to  be  worthy  of  men- 
tion, since  her  name  reminds  us  of  the  Princess  Merris  ( also 
called  Thermuthis),  who  according  to  Jewish  tradition  found  the 
boy  Moses,  as  she  was  bathing,  on  the  bank  of  the  stream.  Is  it  by 
chance — is  it  by  divine  providence — that  under  the  reign  of  the  third 
Ramses,  about  a  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  his  uncle,  the 
great  Sesostris,  a  place  is  mentioned  in  middle  Egypt  which  bears 
the  name  of  the  great  Jewish  law-giver?  It  is  called  I-en-Moses, 
the  island  of  !Moses  (or  the  shore  of  Moses.)  " 


113  APPENDIX  H. 


APPENDIX  H. 

ROMAN   SLAVERY. 

LecHer,  in  a  university  programme,  lias  given  some  interesting 
facts  as  to  the  refined  cruelties  of  Roman  slavery:^  "  They  did  not 
allow  a  slave  a  word,  but  had  intercourse  with  him  only  by  signs. 
If,  however,  the  slave  did  not  immediately  understand  the  sign 
given,  or  even  when  he  was  compelled  to  cough  or  sneeze,  etc.,  he 
was  punished  severely.  If  he  allowed  himself  to  be  guilty  of  an 
excitement  of  anger,  of  a  word  of  impatience,  his  master  could 
whip  him  to  death,  or  cause  him  to  be  strangled,  or  deliver  him 
over  for  a  combat  with  the  wild  beasts  on  the  arena,  or  nail  him  to 
the  cross.  The  despotism  of  the  master  knew  no  bounds  which 
he  was  compelled  to  respect.  The  well  known  words  of  indomit-a- 
ble  arbitrariness :  Sic  volo ;  Sicjubeo ;  Sit  pro  ratione  voluntas  !  In 
Juvenal  vi,  222,  stand  in  connectionwith  the  command  of  a  master  to 
nail  a  slave  to  the  cross,  while  he  is  asked  whether  the  slave  is  guilty 
of  any  fault  at  all?  When  the  same  master  raises  the  question:  Is 
then  the  slave  a  man?  "  He  therewith  bluntly  and  boldly  speaks 
out  the  full  denial  of  all  human  rights  which  underlies  such  treat- 
ment. The  slave  was  indeed,  with  respects  to  his  rights,  degraded 
to  an  animal 

If  a  slave  through  awkardness,  had  the  misfortune  to  break  even 
a  plate  or  a  cup,  there  were  cases  where  his  master  threw  him  into 
the  fish-pond,  where  he  would  become  a  living  prey  of  the  great 
fishes.    It  was  held  that  fish  that  had  been  fed  on  human  flesh 

1  Sklaverd  und  Chnstenthum,  Leipzig  1877,  pp.  19-20. 


ArPEXDIX  L  ii; 


would  taste  all  the  more  delicious  on  the  table.  To  such  a  degree 
of  refined  cannibalism  had  the  culture  of  the  ancient  world  sunk. 
Ordinances  and  laws  from  the  times  of  the  emperors,  which 
deprived  the  masters  of  the  right  of  visiting  such  barbarous  pun- 
ishments, furnish  irrefregable  proof  that  such  things  must  have 
occurred  not  infrequently.  And  not  only  violent  men  allowed 
themselves  such  things.  Women,  too,  made  nothing  of  treating 
their  female  slaves  for  some  trifling  offense  with  special  [ausge- 
suchter]  cruelty.  Roman  ladies  of  rank  bad,  while  they  were 
dressed  and  adorned,  long  needles  in  their  hands,  in  order  to  strike 
the  female  slaves  who  served  them,  in  case  of  any  oversight  what- 
ever, in  the  breast  or  in  the  limbs;  and  in  order  that  the  needles 
might  make  deep  wounds  the  unhappy  slave  girls  had  to  stand  be- 
fore their  mistresses,  naked  to  the  girdle.  And  this  occurred  at 
the  time  of  the  highest  civilization.  So  little  is  mere  cultivation 
of  the  understanding,  without  the  righteous  fear  of  God  and  a 
moral  and  religious  cultivation  of  the  heart,  a  guarantee  for 
genuine  humanity." 


APPENDIX    I. 
DOES  THE  BIBLE  FAVOR  POLYGAMY? 

The  case  has  been  well  put  by  Michaelis,  Mosaisches  RecJit, 
Frankfurt,  1775,  Part  ii.  p.  179:  "It  appears  to  me  that  Moses 
did  not  willingly  permit  polygamy  as  a  matter,  indifferent  morally 
and  politically,  but  to  use  an  expression  of  Christ,  on  account  of 
the  Israelites'  hardness  of  heart;  that  is,  with  other  words,  he 
was  not  favorable  to  it  but  he  found  it  advisable  to  endure  it  as 
a  civil  measure. 


114  APPENDIX  I. 


"His  first  book,  consisting  of  history,  contains  much  which  does 
not  commend  polygamy.  According  to  him,  God  gives,  at  a  time 
when  the  rapid  peopling  of  the  earth  was  the  main  object  of  the 
Creator,  to  the  first  man  only  one  wife,  although  it  is  clear  that 
with  four  wives  he  could  have  begotten  more  children  than  with 
one.  ...  If  polygamy  had  been  pleasing  to  God,  He  would 
have  commanded  that  every  son  of  Noah  should  have  married  as 
many  wives  as  possible.    .    .    • 

"He  did  not  allow  that  eunuchs  should  be  made  among  the 
Israelites.  .  .  .  Moreover,  a  eunuch  who  came  from  another 
country  to  the  Israelites,  was  excluded  by  a  special  law  for  life 
from  the  people  of  God,  i.  e.,  was  incapable  of  the  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical rights  of  an  Israelite,  Deut.  xxiii,  1.  This  was  a  very 
unfavorable  ordinance  for  polygamy.  Commonly  polygamy  and 
castration  go  together,  and  in  the  lands  where  the  former  prevails, 
there  are  thousands,  yea  millions  of  eunuchs.  .  ,  •  In  short 
without  eunuchs  no  great  seralgio  can  be  kept." 


INDEX. 


A. 

Acacia  trees  destroyed  for  the  sake 
of  charcoal,  105. 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  13. 

Animal  as  helpmeet,  27. 

Animals,  their  destruction,  39. 

Apocrypha,  prohibited,  77. 

Arabs  instead  of  ravens,  82. 

Arabs  occasionally  practice  agricul- 
ture, 102. 

Ararat,  38. 

Ark,  its  size,  36. 

Astronomy  in  five  words,  23. 

Atonement,  Ingersoll's  misstate- 
m.ent,  73. 

B. 

Barrenness  of  the  wilderness  occa- 
sioned by  neglect,  102. 

Barrows  on  slavery,  71. 

Bears  and  Elisha,  85. 

Bentley  on  the  text  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, 74. 

Bible:  dungeons,  racks,  etc.,  83 ;  "  not 
inspired  about  religious  liberty," 


61;  "not  inspired  in  natural  his- 
tory," 61. 

Birds,  "  can  beat  a  partial  flood,"  36. 

Blood  in  consecration,  55. 

c. 

Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  when 
completed,  75. 

Captive  maidens,  67. 

Caricature  of  the  Bible,  15. 

"  Champion  bird  eaters,"  46. 

Christian  heaven,  its  selfishness,  84, 

Clothes  did  not  grow  with  the  chil- 
dren, 53. 

Confusion  of  tongues,  39, 

Constantino,  80. 

Contemporaneous  literature  of  the 
Bible,  82. 

Creation  out  of  nothing,  17. 

Creative  days,  their  length,  24. 

D. 

Dana  finds  no  contradiction  between 

Genesis  and  Science,  40. 
Deluge,  not  universal,  35. 


(115) 


116 


INDEX. 


Deuteronomy,  its  author,  14. 
Divorce,  God  not  its  author,  59. 

E. 

Ebees,  the  food  of  the  Israelites  in 

the  desert,  53. 
Egyptian  army,  60. 
Egyptian  women,  their  fruitfulness, 

100. 
Elizabeth  and  the  translation  of  the 

Bible,  79, 
Errors  in  the  Old  Testament,  82. 

F. 

Fall  of  man,  30. 

First-born  sons  at  the  first  census,  45. 

Flood:  Chaldean  story,  and  account 
of  Berosus,  96 ;  Indo-European  tra- 
ditions, 97;  Chinese  and  Ameri- 
can traditions,  98. 

Floods  in  the  wilderness,  105. 

Fruit  after  the  fourth  year,  55. 

G. 

Genesis,  first  two  chapters,  26. 
Green,  Prof,  on  the  English  version, 
82. 

H. 

Haeckel,  origin  of  the  organs  of 
sense,  17. 

Hare,  61. 

Hebrew  bondage  kinder  than  Amer- 
ican slavery,  72. 

Henry  VIII,  attitude  towards  the  Bi- 
ble, 78. 


Herschel  on  light,  24. 

Holy  land :  fertility,  48 ;  size  as  prom- 
ised, 50. 

Hornets,  49. 

Hugh  Miller,  theory  of  the  deluge, 
37. 

I. 

Increase  of  the  Israelites,  43. 

Infanticide  10. 

Ingersoll:  criticism  of  the  Divine 
government,  31 ;  method,  11 ;  ob- 
jections against  Genesis,  40;  the 
effect  of  his  system,  86. 

Israelites,  food  during  their  wander- 
ings, 106. 

J. 

JosEPHUS  on  the  number  of  books  in 
the  Old  Testament,  76. 

L. 

Light,  its  division  from  darkness, 

17 ;  on  the  third  day,  21. 
Luminaries,  their  appointment,  91. 

M. 

Manna,  52. 

Manuscript,  oldest  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 77. 

McCaul,  danger  from  wild  beasts,  51. 

Midianitish  women.  66. 

Milk  in  many  places  the  sole  article 
of  diet  among  the  Bedouins,  102. 

Milk  and  honey,  108. 

Miracles  and  slavery,  56. 


INDEX. 


117 


Mohammed,  63. 

Mommsen,  Roman  slavery,  72. 

Moses  and  the  art  of  writing,  82. 

N. 

Neglectt  of  the  aged,  sick  and  poor, 

9. 
Newcomb  on  light,  24. 
Nicene  creed,  81. 
Noah,  a  preacher  of  righteou.  less, 

32. 

o. 

Oil,  holy  anointing,  54. 

P. 

Paiderastia,  9. 

Palestine:  ancient  fertility,  107;  ef- 
fect of  cultivation,  109. 

Parashas,  or  sections  in  the  Bible,  25. 

Pharaoh's  daughter,  111. 

Philo  on  humanity,  67. 

Plato,  account  of  the  origin  of  the 

sexes,  28. 

Polygamy,  63;  does  the  Bible  favor 
it?   113. 

Prologue  of  Sirach,  75. 

R. 

Rabbit,  61. 

Rain,  effect  upon  the  flood,  37. 

Rainbow,  sgn  of  the  covenant,  38. 

Ramses  II :  Moses  born  during  his 
reign,  61 ;  the  Pharaoh  of  the  op- 
pression, 111. 


Rashi  on  the  creation  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  91. 

Rib,  Ingersoll's  remarks  considered, 

28. 

Ruins  in  the  wilderness,  104. 

s. 

Scientific  language  not  used  in  the 
Bible,  18-20. 

Scripture,  its  design,  18. 

Second  commandment,  63. 

Septuagint,  its  date,  77. 

Servitude  among  the  Hebrews  of 
two  kinds,  69. 

Sethites,  characteristics,  94. 

Seven  nations  of  Canaanites,  49. 

Shadow  on  the  dial,  23. 

Sin  and  its  results,  85. 

Sinai  and  Sahara,  47. 

Slave,  murder,  71. 

Slave-wife,  70. 

Slavery :  among  the  Israelites,  68 ;  al- 
most a  necessity  under  certain 
forms  of  civilization,  69;  Roman, 
112. 

Snakes,  52. 

Sons  of  God,  93. 

Sun  standing  still,  21. 

T. 

Tacitts  testimony  as  to  the  fertility 

of  Palestine,  107. 
Ten  commandments,  62. 
Terraces,  104. 


118 


INDEX. 


Text  of  the  O.  T.  written  without 

vowels,  24. 
Textual  criticism,  74. 

w. 

Wild  beasts  in  Palestine,  51. 
Wilderness:    effect  of    cultivation, 

102 ;    resources,  47. 
Wilderness  of  Sinai :  exportation  of 


vegetable  produce  to  Egypt,  106; 

formerly  more  fertile,  101. 
Windows  of  the  ark,  37. 
Woman:  her  creation,  27;  position 

in  the  Bible,  59. 

z. 

Zend-Avesta,  tradition  of  creation 
and  fall,  30. 


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MOTIVES  OF  LIFE. 

By  prof.  DAVID  SWING. 


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"The  motives  discussed  are  'Intellectual  Progress,'— 'Home,'— 'A  Good 
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rich  rewards  which  await  their  fulfilment.  All  readers  will  be  lenefited 
by  their  perusal,  and  the  value  of  the  truths  conveyed  is  supplemented 
by  8e.sthetic  gratification  in  the  delightful  style  in  which  they  are  set 
forth.'' — Book  Bulletin,  Boston. 

"  The  vivacity  and  point  with  which  the  author  of  this  volume  is 
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divine  laws  and  a  fresh  sense  of  the  beauty  and  right  of  truth.  They 
catch  from  his  discourses  a  new  apprehension  of  ihe  necessity  and  virtue 
of  mutual  tolerance,  forgiveness  and  fr.endship,  and  reverence  among 
men,  and  are  enveloped  with  a  new  and  blessed  atmosphere  of  love  and 
peace."— C'Aicas'o  Tribune. 

"■  Fresh  and  manly,  full  of  generous  Christian  feeling,  and  without  a 
taint  of  heresy.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Swing  is  not  at  all  violent  and  overbear- 
ing in  dealing  with  those  with  whom  he  does  not  agree  on  theological 
opinions.  He  evidently  believes  that  non-Churchmen  have  rights  which 
<,  hurchmen  are  bound  to  respect,  but  holds  firmly  to  his  own  views,  and 
defends  them  manluUy." — Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

"  Mr.  Swing  is  singularly  felicitous  in  the  selection  of  his  topics  and 
illustrations  from  the  interests  of  common  life.  He  never  takes  us  into  a 
world  of  dreams  and  shadows— still  less  into  the  land  of  the  shadow  of 
death— but  into  a  sphere  of  rich  and  glowing  vitality.  His  discourses 
abound  in  constant  surprises,  springing  from  first  and  original  sources, 
which  present  an  exhaustless  field  of  instruction."— iVeu;  York  Tribune. 

"As  sacred  compositions,  they  captivate  by  a  sweetness  that  is  as  natural 
to  them  as  tints  to  the  rose  or  flavor  to  the  strawberry.  'Ihey  are  logical 
without  a  display  of  argumentation,  and  poetical  without  any  sacrifice 
of  directness  or  sincerity.  While  one's  reason  is  appealed  to  all  along, 
the  language  of  the  appeal  comes  up  all  blossoming  and  fragrant  wiih 
the  heart.  It  would  be  hard  to  find,  in  the  same  compass,  so  much  real 
poetry  and  logic  in  vital  union  as  in  these  discourses.  And  here  is  the 
secret  of  their  power." — The  Alliance. 

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TALES  FROM  FOREIGN  TONGUES, 

COMPRISING 

MEMORIES ;  ^  story  of  German  love. 

By  max  MULLER. 

GRAZIELLA ;  a  story  op  Italian  love. 

By  a.  DE  LAMARTINE. 

MAHIE :    A  STORY  of  Russian  love. 

By  ALEX.  PUSHKIN. 

MADELEINE ;  -^  story  of  French  love. 

By  JULES  SANDEAU. 


In  neat  hoco,  per  set,        .  .  ,  ,  .        Price,  $6.00. 

Sold  separately f  per  volumef  ,  ,  ,  Price,  $1.50. 


Of  "Memories'  the  London  Academy  says:  "It  is  a  prose  poem. 
*  *  *  It  is  seldom  that  a  powerful  intellect  produces  any- 

work,  however  small,  that  does  not  bear  some  marks  of  its  special  bent, 
and  the  traces  of  research  and  philosophy  in  this  little  story  are  appar- 
ent, while  its  beauty  and  pathos  show  us  a  fresh  phase  of  a  many-sided 
mind,  to  which  we  already  owe  large  debts  of  gratitude." 

Of  "Grflziella"  the  Chicago  IViftune  says:  "It  glows  with  love  of  the 
beautiful  in  all  nature.  *  *  *  It  is  pure  literature,  a 

perfect  story,  couched  in  perfect  words.  The  sentences  have  the  rhythm 
and  flow,  tlie  sweetness  and  tender  fancy  of  the  original.  It  is  uniform 
■with  '  Memories,' and  it  should  stand  side  by  side  with  that  on  the 
f^helves  of  every  lover  of  pure,  strong  thoughts,  put  in  pure,  strong 
words.    '  Graziella'  is  a  book  to  be  loved." 

Of  "  Marie"  the  Cincinnati  Gazette  says:  "  This  is  a  Russian  love  tale, 
written  by  a  Russian  poet.  It  is  one  of  the  purest,  sweetest  little  narra- 
tives that  we  have  read  for  a  long  time.  It  is  a  little  classic,  and  a  Russian 
classic,  too.  That  is  one  of  its  charms,  that  it  is  so  distinctively  Russian. 
We  catch  the  very  breezes  of  the  Steppes,  und  meet,  tace  to  face,  the  high- 
souled,  simple-minded  Russian." 

Of " Madeleine"  the  New  York  Evening  Telegram  says:  "More  than 
thirty  years  ago  it  received  the  honor  of  a  prize  from  the  French 
Academy  and  has  since  almost  be-ome  a  French  classic.  It  abounds 
boih  in  pathos  and  wit.  Above  all.  it  is  a  pure  story,  dealing  with  love 
of  the  most  exalted  kind.  It  is,  indeed,  a  wonder  that,  a  tale  so  fresh,  so 
sweet,  so  pure  as  this  has  not  sooner  been  introduced  to  the  English- 
speaking  public." 

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SHORT  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE, 

FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

By  miss  E.  S.  KIRKLAND. 

AUTHOR  OF  "SIX  LITTLE  COOKS,"  "  DORA'S  HOUSEKEEPING."  ETC 


ISmo.,  extra  cloth,  black  and  gilt,  ,  .  Price,  $1.50. 


"A  very  ably  written  sketch  of  French  history,  from  the  earliest  times 
to  the  foundation  of  the  existing  Repnhlic"— Cincinnati  Gazette. 

"  The  narrative  is  not  dry  on  a  single  page,  and  the  rttle  history  may 
be  commended  as  the  best  of  its  kind  that  has  yet  appeared.  -BuUetm, 
Philadelphia. 

"A  book  both  instructive  and  entertaining.  It  is  not  a  dry  compen- 
dium of  dates  and  facts,  but  a  charmingly  written  history.  —Chrutian 
Union,  New  York. 

"After  a  careful  examination  of  its  contents,  we  are  able  to  conscien- 
tiously give  it  our  heartiest  commendation.  We  know  no  elementary 
hiscory  of  France  that  can  at  ail  be  compared  witn  it.'  —Living  Chuicn. 

"A  spirited  and  enter'aining  sketch  of  the  French  people  and  nation 
—one  that  will  seize  and  hold  the  attention  of  all  bright  boys  and  girls 
who  have  a  chance  to  read  it."— /Sunday  Afternoon,  Springfield,  (Mass.) 

"  We  find  its  descriptions  universally  good,  that  it  is  admirably  sinirle 
and  direct  in  style,  without  waste  of  words  or  timidity  of  opinion,  ine 
book  represents  a  great  deal  of  patient  labor  and  conscientious  study.  — 
Courant,  Hartford,  Ct. 

"  Miss  Kirkland  has  composed  her  '  Short  History  of  France'  in  the 
way  in  which  a  history  for  young  people  ought  to  be  written  ;  that  is,  she 
has  aimed  to  present  a  consecutive  and  agreeable  story,  irom  which  the 
•reader  can  not  only  learn  the  names  of  kings  and  the  succession  ot 
events,  but  can  also  receive  a  vivid  and  permanent  impression  as  to  «ie 
characters,  modes  of  life,  and  the  spirit  of  diflfereut  periods.  —2 he 
Kation,  N.  Y. 

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"It  is  as  Readable  as  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.'  "—Methodist  Recorder 

Pittsburgh. 

REBECCA; 

OR, 

A  WOMAN'S  SECRET. 

By    MRS.    CAROLINE   F.    CORBIN. 

AUTHOR    OF  "belle    AND    THE    BOYS,"    ETC. 


12mo„  3S9  pages, Price,   $1.50. 


"  One  of  the  strongest,  most  thoughtful,  and  at  the  same  time  other- 
wise attractive  stories  that  have  lately  come  to  Vis."—The  Advance. 

"A  story  which  grasps  the  reader's  interest  at  the  first  page  and  holds 
ittot.ielast     *       *       *     a  work  of  intense  dramatic  power."— jTiferior. 

"  We  have  read  this  absorbing  story  through  with  a  sense  of  wonder, 
admiration  and  delight.  It  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  compositions 
that  the  age  has  produced.' *—3Iethodist  Recorder,  Pittsburgh. 

"  This  novel  will  excite  unusual  interest  with  the  reading  public. 
The  work  is  characterized  by  thoughtful  earnestness  and  a  wise  liberality, 
and  will  exercise  a  wholesoine  influence."— 2 ri&u?ie,  Chicago. 

"  The  peculiar  features  of  the  '  woman  question'  are  touched  with  a 
rare  mingling  of  strength  and  delicacv  *  *  *  it  is  essentially 
a  woman's  book  about  women,  and  an  interesting  ttory  besides." — 
Christian  TJnion,  New  York. 

"So  thoroughly  packed  with  good  things  is  this  volume— it  can 
scarcely  be  called  a  novel,  notwithstanding  its  title— that  to  take  time  to 
to  point  out  each  one  separately  is  entirely  out  of  the  question.  *  *  * 
Mrs.  Corbin  has  proven  herself  a  writer  of  more  than  ordinary  ability.— 
The  Times,  Chicago, 

"  It  is  a  book  of  great  power,  and  in  addition  to  its  thrilling  interest 
and  originality  as  a  story,  it  treats  the  Woman  Question  with  rare  deli- 
cacy and  strength.  Every  woman  who  reads  the  book  will  be  grateful  to 
the  author  for  the  grand  womanliness  of  each  of  its  women,  and  for  the 
contribution  its  temper  and  spirit  make  the  question  of  Woman's  Posi- 
tion.—^ew  Covenant. 

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"Sound,  Sensible,  and  Civilized." — Tlie  Nation,  y.  Y 


Six  Little  Cooks, 

Or  Aunt  Jane's  Cooking  Class. 

By  miss  E.  S.  KIRKLAND, 
Author  of  "Suort  History  of  Franxe,"  "Dora's  Housekeeping,"  etc. 


12mo.,  U'ith  Frontispiece,  ....         Price,  $1.00, 


"We  (To  not  think  a  more  useful  book  for  girls  has  been  published."— 
TJie  Alliance. 

"  It  is  a  capital  cookery  book,  made  by  a  capital  story-teller."— 5an 
Francisco  Messenger. 

"  We  know  of  one  little  girl  who  thinks  it  a  wonderful  book."— C^rw^iara 
Register,  Boston. 

"While  it  is  really  an  interesting  narrative  in  itself,  it  delightfully 
teaches  girls  just  how  to  follow  practically  its  many  recipes  "—^'^  yicliolas, 
Ifiew  York. 

"This  book  is  the  result  of  a  happy  thought.  »  •  *  A  lucky  stroke 
of  genius,  because  it  is  a  good  thing  well  done.  It  has  the  charm  of  a 
bright  story  of  real  life,  and  is  a  useful  essay  on  tne  art  of  cooking.— 2tm€5, 
New  York. 

"A  praiseworthy  versatility  enables  the  author  to  keep  up  the  form  and 
the  interest  of  a  story,  and  now  by  a  picnic,  or  again  by  a  birthday,  or 
unexpected  company,  or  the  cook's  holiday,  or  the  mistress's  illness,  to 
furnish  a  pretext  for  the  intervention  of  the  '  little  cooks.'  The  conver- 
sations are  natural  and  sprightly,  and  Aunt  Jane  s  directions  plain, 
practical,  and  altogether  excellent." — Tlie  Nation,  N.  Y. 

"  We  have  not  seen  in  the  whole  range  of  our  juvenile  literature  a  more 
useful  and  attractive  volume  for  girls  than  this.  It  has  the  charm  of  a 
lite-like  story,  and  the  practical  value  of  a  clever  essay  on  the  culinary 
art.  Aunt  Jane,  whoever  she  may  tie,  is  an  accomplished  woman,  with 
an  unusual  talent  for  sprightly  writing  and  an  extended  knowledge  of 
the  subtle  and  skillful  ways  and  means  involved  in  the  management  of 
an  elegant  euisine.  The  six  little  folks  to  whom  she  gives  lessons  in  the 
craft  ot  cooking,  are  rt'al  little  folks,  carrying  on  a  lively  chatter  all 
through  their  busy  work,  just  as  little  folks  do  wherever  they  are— saying 
the  most  natural  things  in  the  most  unaffected  and  amusing  manner.'  — 
Tribune,  Chicago. 

Sold  ty  tooJcsellers,  or  mailed  post  paid,  on  receipt  of  price,  hy 
JANSEN,   McCLURG   &    CO.,    Publishers,    Chicago,    III. 


'Lively,  Interesting  and  Instructive." — Christian  Union,  N.  Y. 


DORA'S  HOUSEKEEPING; 

By  miss   E.  S.  KIRKLAND. 

AUTHOR  OF  "  SIX  LITTLE  COOKS,"    "A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF    FRANCE,"   ETC. 


12mo.f  with  Frontispiece,  ....         Brice,  $1.00. 


"  It  ought  to  make  devotees  to  the  noble  art  of  cooking  of  those  who 
read  it.— Cincinnati  Times. 

"  Never  was  a  more  tempting  bait  thrown  out  wherewith  to  inveigle 
the  vast  tribes  of  Lttle  girls  into  being  capable  women."— Tmes. 

"It  occupies  a  hitherto  untilled  field  in  literature,  and  girls  and  their 
mothers  will  be  equally  delighted  with  it."— The  Advance,  Chicago. 

"  It  is  intended  for  girls  in  their  early  teens,  and  so  appetizing  are  the 
recipes,  that  they  would  almost  turn  an  anchorite  into  a  cook.  In  short, 
one  can't  look  over  the  book  without  getting  hungry."— Jn&wne,  New 
York. 

"It  is  practical  as  well  as  entertaining,  with  Its  directions  and  re- 
cipes, and  ought  to  find  a  good  many  interested  readers  among  the  little 
girls  who  are  anxious  to  grow  up  with  some  knowledge  of  housekeep- 
ing."—Posf  and  Tribune,  Detroit. 

"  Wise  mothers  of  that  excellent  sort  who  make  the  household  a  well 
ordered  kingdom,  will  appreciate  the  worth  of  such  a  story,  and  its  fit- 
ness for  presentation  to  daughters  who  are  in  training,  after  the  good  old 
sensible  plan,  for  the  proper  performance  of  the  daily  duties  of  life." — 
Evening  Post,  New  York. 

"  The  story  does  not  flag,  either,  and  is  enlivened  with  some  good 
character-sketching.  The  housewifely  advice  is  sound,  sensible  and 
civilized.  We  coruially  recommend  these  two  little  books  ('  Dora's 
House-keeping"  and  "Six  Little  Cooks')  as  containing  the  whole  gos- 
pel of  domestic  economy."— TAe  Nation,  New  York. 

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Date  Due 

f 

^j^JPBIIiliOMWWWI 

g) 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

BS1225.8.M7C9 

Ingersoll  and  Moses :  a  reply. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library  ^^^ 

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